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Once believed to be a relative of the Snowy Egret, the Great Egret has been unmasked as not even belonging to the same Order. Even more astonishing, they aren’t even from the same phylum. As this photograph amply demonstrates, Great Egrets are in fact a significantly more mobile example of tubeworm, where the long rigid tube which so characterizes them has (through millions of years) been absorbed inside the body.

You may remember hearing about caterpillars tricking predators by mimicking more toxic caterpillars, but biologists in South America have discovered something amazing: a caterpillar that mimics a baby bird. This allows them to ‘flip the script’ and rather than worry about being eaten, they are fed regularly by the Cinereous Mourner whose nests they parasitize.

Perhaps the most dedicated mimic in the insect world, Sunbittern Butterflies undergo a dramatic metamorphosis unlike most any other. Not content with mere eyespots as warning, they are also the only butterfly with fully-articulated wings and can fold them as one would expect a real bird. When threatened, Sunbitterns will plant themselves on their front pair of legs and hoist their bodies skyward, hiding their tender abdomens behind an impressive wall of ‘feathers’.