April Fool’s Day isn’t just for prank‑loving humans – nature has its own little jokesters. But unlike our April Fool’s pranks, their tricks aren’t just for laughs, it’s a matter of survival. Lara Shepherd and Phil Sirvid introduce some amazing critters that use clever costumes, ranging from clear contenders for the ‘Fashion in the Field’ prize to the downright creepy, in order to fool their predators.
Floral haute couture
Meet one of the tiniest fashionistas on the planet: the caterpillar of the camouflaged looper moth (also known as the wavy-lined emerald) from North America. This tiny caterpillar doesn’t just wear flowers – it builds its own custom outfits out of them.
As it eats its way through daisies and other flowers, it snips off petals and even whole flowers to craft the perfect disguise. A bit of sticky spit attaches each floral accessory to the spines on its back. The result is a fabulous, ever-changing costume that lets the caterpillar blend into its flowery surroundings, fooling potential predators and avoiding becoming someone’s snack.
And when it crawls onto a new flower? No problem at all. It simply whips up a fresh ensemble to match the new décor. Some scientists even think this quick-change talent helps the caterpillar enjoy a more varied diet.
Gardener extraordinaires
Some critters are so in tune with nature that they carry their own tiny living “gardens” wherever they go. Decorator crabs are found around the world and include a number of species in the superfamily Majoidea. These crafty crabs adorn themselves with materials from their local environment, such as seaweed, anemones or sponges.
The hooked hairs on their shells act like Velcro, securing their decorations in place. These embellishments help them blend into the background as camouflage, but sometimes they choose toxic or stinging organisms, which likely play a more defensive role.
Back on land, a number of flightless beetle species wander through life with an entire ecosystem on their back. Fungi, lichens, moss and liverworts have all been recorded growing on the carapaces of beetles from far-flung places like the rainforests of Madagascar and Papua New Guinea. These miniature gardens don’t stop at plants – they also host mites, nematodes, rotifers, and even diatoms. Special hairs or scales, along with a secretion produced by the beetles, encourage these hitchhikers to settle in. In return, this living cloak likely helps the beetles stay hidden in the mossy undergrowth,
There are few publicly available photos of these tiny walking gardens, but it’s worth clicking through to this amazing one.
Fungal fakery
Playing dead (also known as thanatosis) is common in the animal world. Some creatures take a different approach, dressing the part instead, and nothing screams mouldering corpse quite like a body that’s coated with sprouting fungi! Fungi are well known for infecting spiders and insects with spores, often taking over the host body completely and (as fans of The Last of Us know) sometimes changing the host’s behaviour for their own benefit. For example, some fungi can make a spider that would normally hide away come out into the open before it dies. This more exposed position lets the fungus spread spores more easily.
A predator coming across a mouldy spider is likely to pass it by to seek fresher fare, and a recent study has shown that some spiders copy this look. An Ecuadorian orbweb spider called Taczanowskia waska has protruding structures that mimic the shape of fungal fruiting bodies, making these arachnids look very unappetizing indeed. It has also been suggested this fungal disguise might make the spiders seem harmless to prey, leading them to move too close to the spider with fatal consequences.
Creepy headwear
The head-stacking caterpillar is the larvae of the gumleaf skeletoniser moth (Uraba lugens). Affectionately called the “mad hatterpillar”, this species stands out from the crowd with its eccentric accessory. On top of its head, it sports a tower made from its old, moulted head capsules.
This bizarre headpiece isn’t just a bold fashion choice. The caterpillar’s stack of heads is thought to act as a false target for predators, such as parasitic wasps and flies, and may even double as a weapon. When it comes to survival strategies, the head‑stacking caterpillar is quite literally a head above the rest!
Native to eastern Australia, this quirky critter has also made its way – accidentally – to Aotearoa New Zealand. Because it poses a risk to Eucalyptus forestry and its hairs can irritate skin, a parasitic wasp has been introduced here to help keep its numbers in check. Even the most stylish troublemakers need boundaries.
Spider super-sized self-sculptures
A group of spiders known as trashline orbweavers (genus Cyclosa) get their common name from decorating their webs with a line of debris to hide in. We can see this in the local three-lobed spider (Cyclosa trilobata), but two species take this to the next level and make larger replica spiders instead! It’s thought that these dummy spiders might deter some predators or lead them to misdirect attacks, but either way, the arachnid artists avoid being eaten. The deception is not just about a static resemblance either. When threatened, the real spiders were observed shaking their webs to make the decoys look like they were moving. Weirdly, this form of deception has evolved independently in species that live a long way from each other – in Peru and the Philippines.
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