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Cheats and Deceits - How Animals and Plants Exploit and Mislead (Hardcover)
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Cheats and Deceits - How Animals and Plants Exploit and Mislead (Hardcover)
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In nature, trickery and deception are widespread. Animals and
plants mimic other objects or species in the environment for
protection, trick other species into rearing their young, lure prey
to their death, and deceive potential mates for reproduction.
Cuckoos lay eggs carefully matched to their host's own clutch.
Harmless butterflies mimic the wing patterning of a poisonous
butterfly to avoid being eaten. The deep-sea angler fish hangs a
glowing, fleshy lure in front of its mouth to draw the attention of
potential prey, while some male fish alter their appearance to look
like females in order to sneak past rivals in mating. Some orchids
develop the smell of female insects in order to attract
pollinators, while carnivorous plants lure insects to their death
with colourful displays. In this book, Martin Stevens describes the
remarkable range of such adaptations in nature, and considers how
they have evolved, and become increasingly perfected as part of an
arms race between predator and prey or host and parasite. He
explores the work of naturalists and biologists from Alfred Russel
Wallace to current research, showing how scientists find ways of
testing the impact of particular behaviours and colourings on the
animals it is meant to fool, as opposed to our human perceptions.
Drawing on a wide range of examples, Stevens considers what
deception tells us about the process of evolution and adaptation.
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