Boa Cryptic coloration helps disguise an animal so that it is less visible to predators or prey. One of the most common types of cryptic coloration is background matching, which may take various forms. Many helpless animals have developed colors and markings that match their surroundings in order to hide from predators. Fish eggs and microscopic zooplankton, for example, are transparent and nearly invisible as they drift in the upper layers of oceans and freshwater lakes. A fawn's spotted coat camouflages the animal against the speckled forest floor.
Some animals attempt to camouflage themselves physically.
Grasshoppers and other insects that live among green plants are often green, and insects that live in the soil, such as ants, are often earth-colored. The pepper moth has colored patches that camouflage it against the tree on which it lives. The sargasso sea dragon lives amid masses of floating algae. The fish is not only colored to match the plants, but its fins and scales are even shaped like algae. The oriental leaf butterfly, which lives on leaf-littered forest floors, is so intricately and completely camouflaged that its markings include leaf veins and a stem.