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Some believe that the chrysanthemum snake is imaginary. Who am I to say?
While other snakes are known to use scale roughness to aid in camouflage, give a bristly appearance, to produce "eyelash" fringes or even tentacles on their snouts, the cryptic chrysanthemum snake (also known as the daisy snake) is the only known snake with a collection of petal-like scale spikes on its head, which mimics the shape of a flower.
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#imaginary #linocut #printmaking #compositeCreature #snake #MastoArt
It uses this unusual adaptation in hunting, but wrapping itself around the base of a chrysanthemum plant and holding is upper body and head erect, to disguise itself as another flower. Its head crest scales are transparent, revealing its yellow skin below. The other scales, have a bluish tinge, due to the scale ultrastructure (that is, the nanostructure of the scales themselves at scales below the wavelengths of visual light).
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Thus, the rest of the body of the snake appears iridescent green since the bluish scales overlay a yellow skin. The snake can successfully camouflage its body as a flower stem. When an unwitting pollinator comes to investigate this apparent flower, the snake rapidly snatches an easy meal. The snakes also eat larvae which come to feed on the flowers & thus, they have developed a unique symbiotic relationship; the flowers allow the snakes to hunt and the snakes keep the flower's predators at bay.