homochromia

homochromia

English

Etymology

homo- +‎ -chromia

Noun

homochromia (uncountable)

1. (zoology, rare) The use, by an organism, of the same colour as its background or other form of camouflage as a means of protection.
   • 1895, Jean Massart & Émile Vandervelde, Parasitism, Organic and Social (trans. William Macdonald and J. Arthur Thomson), Swan Sonnenschein & Co. Limited (1895), pages 16-17:

     Lastly, the same holds good of mimetic parasitism; for at the climax of that process we have the elaborate imitation of the living organism, then of its cadaver or its excreta, till, finally, we arrive at homochromia, that is, the adoption by certain animals of the prevailing colour of their environment.

   • 1975, Animal Behaviour Abstracts, Volume 3, page 201:

     Mimetic homochromia consists not only of imitation of the colour and texture of the environment or of other spp (animal or plant), but also involves Imitation of their behaviour, immobility being the best known example, especially in otherwise conspicuous spp.

   • 2000, Nancy Huston, Prodigy, McArthur & Company (2000), →ISBN, page 55:

     […] I mean, butterflies are good at make-believe, too…. What are homochromia and dissuasive livery, if not artistic lies? Like the Caligo prometheus, who proclaims to his enemies, "I'm the head of an owl, I'm gonna eat you!" Or the Samia cynthia, which looks like a dreadful dragon! Pride of our species, my eye."

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:homochromia.

Synonyms

• homochromy