Dumb Questions.

[Cicero]

Hey. I have a lot of dumb questions, and some of you smarties might have answers. I know I can go to ask.com. But sometimes my queries end up with a big fat nothing.

So. How do insects that fit in with their natural environment know what they look like, enough to use it as a defense mechanism for survival? I mean, I like the leaf bugs that hang around the house, but how do they know that they look like a leaf? It's not like they look in a mirror one day, and say, "honey is it me or do I look like a leaf"?

How do they know that they look specifically like a stick or something, and hang in stacks of sticks? Is this some sort of natural instinct?

I mean, what the hell? Are they that self-aware?

[glatt]

They probably have no idea they look like a stick, or a leaf, or whatever. It's just that all the ones that didn't look like a stick got eaten, so only the stick looking ones are left. That's basically how natural selection works.

[Cicero]

Hmm...A better example might be a chameleon.

[Shawnee123]

Cicero, you are one quirky girl.

But it's a good question. My question has always been about birds. We know birds of a feather flock together, but within those flocks are there friendships? Like when you see a bunch of birds flying around, are they bird friends or do they just fly around with any bird that looks like them? I know some bigger headed birds even mate for life, but what about your, say, sparrows? Do they have the cool clique and the hood clique and the sporty birds and the nerdy birds?

I have always wondered this. Thanks for a venue in which to ask.

[HungLikeJesus]

I've recently observed magpies hanging out with crows. They were playing with a big box in the back yard. I wondered if they are able to cross-breed.

[Juniper]

"It's a popular misconception that the chameleon changes its color to match that of the background," says Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

Light, temperature, and emotions determine color changes.

Most chameleon species have a basic color and pattern that suits their habitat and provides camouflage. They change color to communicate mood changes to other chameleons. An angry chameleon goes "black with rage", says the International Wildlife Encyclopedia.

He can change to various shades of green, blue-green, turquoise, and black.

The transparent skin of a chameleon has four layers which work together to produce various colors. The outside layer has two kinds of color cells, yellow and red. Just inside this layer are two more layers that reflect light: one blue and the other white. The innermost layer — important and complicated — contains pigment granules (melanophore cells).

The melanophores have a dark brown pigment called melanin, the same substance that colors human skin brown or black. The main body of each melanophore sits like a brooding octopus beneath the reflecting layers and sends tentacle-like arms up through the other layers.

The color cells alter size, which changes the amounts of red, yellow, and dark brown in the skin and this, in turn, alters skin color. The reflecting layers modify these effects. Where the skin has a blue layer under yellow cells, the blue reflects through the yellow and changes it to green. Where the blue layer is missing, white shines though and enhances the yellow and red above.

The skin brightens when the cells pull the dark melanin from their tentacle-like arms into their bodies. The skin darkens when the cells spread the dark pigment through their arms into the upper layers of the skin. The brownish black color then obscures the white layer, darkening the skin like a black cloud darkens the land.

That's how the chameleon changes color. It knows what color to change to just as we do when we turn red with embarrassment.

[Shawnee123]

Wait wait wait...what do you mean they were "playing" with a "big" "box"?

Seriously, what were they doing?

If they mated you'd get crow-mag-nons.

[Juniper]

Two of my kitties seem to have a close relationship, more so than any of the other cats I've had. They're always together, snuggling, tails intertwined, head bumping. We assume they're a married couple by now, in as much as they can be, having been spayed & neutered.

[HungLikeJesus]

Juniper - those aren't cats!

[HungLikeJesus]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

Wait wait wait...what do you mean they were "playing" with a "big" "box"?

Seriously, what were they doing?

If they mated you'd get crow-mag-nons.

I was a long way away and couldn't see the details, but they were taking turns jumping from the grass to the top of the box and back down, and seemed to be trying to open it. There were two crows and a magpie. Other birds were walking around the yard, looking under the deck, digging in the grass, and doing other bird things.

P.S. crow-mag-nons - that's a good one.

[Shawnee123]

Looks like we got ourselves a condorvoy.

[Pico and ME]

HLJ...you always make me lol.

[Cicero]

Oh, wow! I did not know that! Thanks Juniper!

[Juniper]

Originally Posted by HungLikeJesus

Juniper - those aren't cats!

(sigh)

I just thought they were cute interspecies love pictures, sheesh. You're such a clown.

[Cicero]

lol! I think they're great! If I had a tail it would be wagging.