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Pulchriphyllium giganteum
Its flattened green body is wide enough to be mistaken for a whole leaf. Expanded legs contribute extra little leaf shapes around the edge, and veins help hide where the folded wings begin. Look for antennae and a jointed leg where a leaf would have a stem.
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Kallima inachus
When this butterfly closes its wings, the undersides show what looks like a leaf’s center vein and finer lines leading off it. Rough markings can look like damage on a dry leaf. A flash of contrasting color when its wings open gives away the outline.
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Leafy seadragon
Thin, leaflike appendages break up the shape of this pipefish relative. Look for its long snout, eye and nearly transparent swimming fins among the frills. It drifts like seaweed on cool rocky reefs off southern and western Australia.
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Uroplatus phantasticus
Its flattened tail has the shape and brown tones of an old leaf, and the small points over its eyes make the rest of its outline uneven. Follow the legs and toes to see which parts of the leaf shape actually grip branches.
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Common flat-tail gecko
Flattened against a tree, a large leaf-tailed gecko is easy to read as part of the bark. Flaps of skin hide the sharp edge a raised body would cast. Look for a broad head, an eye and the toes spread on the trunk.
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Theloderma corticale
Knobs and warts scattered across its green and dark body make it look like a loose patch of moss stuck to wet rock. Look for the round eye and bends in the toes. Its rough shape matters as much as its green color.
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Long-nosed horned frog
Look for a protruding snout and points above the eyes that break up the head like the pointed edge of a dead leaf. From above, those angles disappear into the leaf litter. Find the eye and the folds of the legs to see where the frog ends.
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Brown leaf chameleon
This small chameleon blends into brown forest litter with a low body and an angular outline. The closely spaced legs and a raised eye are often easier to see than its color. Look where the head and tail make uneven ends to the leaf shape.
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Phyllocrania paradoxa
A high point on the head and broad flattened lobes on the body make this mantis look like a shriveled, broken leaf. Check for the folded front legs. They can remain tucked so neatly against the torso that the false leaf outline stays intact.
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Deroplatys desiccata
A broad shield on the chest and wide folded wings help hide the outline of a mantis in dry leaves. Look at the way its body sits above the litter, and at the spined front legs that can open quickly from under the leaflike shield.
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Common walkingstick
The narrow brown or green body can pass for a twig with little side branches. Check the small rounded head and the segmented legs, which can stick out like the beginning of new stems. It may be easier to see the disguise from the side.
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Carausius morosus
At rest, its long body and thin straight legs have almost the same width as the shoots it climbs through. A giveaway is the steady pair of antennae extending from the head while the legs and body remain nearly motionless.
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Extatosoma tiaratum
This Australian stick insect looks more like a rough, curled leaf than a smooth green stem. Spines and flanges make the edges uneven, and the upturned abdomen helps break the usual insect outline. Look for the long, jointed legs among the projections.
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Teratodes monticollis
The high, ridged hood over its back gives this grasshopper the profile of a leaf blade. Look below the ridge for its jointed hind legs and the eye low on the head. Green and brown individuals can resemble living and drying leaves respectively.
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Peppered moth
The pale form’s dark flecks are good camouflage on a bark surface broken up by light-colored patches of lichen. The silhouette gives it away when the wings look like two matching pieces rather than a random patch on the trunk.
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Tawny frogmouth
This Australian bird can sit very still and point its bill upward so its head and mottled gray-brown feathers resemble the end of a broken limb. Look for a closed eye or the way the feathers meet the bark on the far side.
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Common potoo
A potoo can hold its whole body in line with the top of a bare branch. It is worth searching upward from the real wood for a fine break in texture and an eye slit, where the bird’s mottled feathers meet the end of the snag.
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Sargassum fish
This frogfish lives among floating Sargassum, where its marbled colors and fleshy, ragged projections resemble pieces of the seaweed. Look for the short, leglike fins holding it in place rather than for a flat tail or the silhouette of an ordinary fish.
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Elysia chlorotica
This eastern North American sea slug looks like a green leaf from above when the thin sides of its body spread out. Follow the outline to its head and small projections. The green comes from chloroplasts it takes up from algae it eats.
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Costasiella kuroshimae
The leaf sheep is a tiny sea slug covered in pointed green projections. It can resemble a little bunch of leaves on the algae where it feeds. Zoom in to see the real head, eyes and tentacle-like rhinophores at one end.
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Common seadragon
Small leaflike flaps project from its long body. Look for a slender snout and yellow markings on a fish-shaped head to separate it from vegetation. Its appendages are sparser than those of a leafy seadragon, which makes the long body easier to follow.
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