There are a lot of animals on Earth that use camouflage to blend in with their surroundings, but perhaps one of the better examples of this in action is the humble leaf insect, which can look exactly like the very plants that it clings to and eats as it evades predators.
The ability to look exactly like your surroundings as you evade predation is known as protective resemblance, and the leaf insect does it very well. Even down to the smallest details, the leaf insect looks just like an actual leaf – from the veins running across its body to the brown crinkly parts at the ends.
The only conspicuous parts of the insect might be its eyes and antennae, which stick out like a sore thumb. On the other hand, the insect uses careful stillness to its advantage to avoid getting noticed, and this method seems to work rather well.
When it comes time to lay eggs, the leaf insect allows them to fall to the ground where they camouflage with the insect’s feces. They don't move much when laying their eggs to avoid getting detected.
Upon hatching, the offspring will be typically brown in color, but they turn green just like the adults over time. The hatchling’s primary goal is to find a bush or a tree to hide on, where it may spend the rest of its days hiding in plain sight from predators.
