ABSTRACT
Some plants are capable of deception. The leaves of certain insectivorous plants have evolved in order to deceive insects, and cause them to respond to them as though they were flowers. Insects that settle upon them, or enter them become trapped. Later they are digested by the plant’s secretions. Challoner (2000) observed that many evolutionary biologists consider deceit to play an important part in the animal world, and to be important for survival. Some animals have evolved with deceptive characteristics that are advantageous to them, the commonest being camouflage. They have shapes and colouring that cause them to merge into the background of their usual environments. Some animals change their colouring with the seasons, and some even change when they move from one environment to another. Stick insects and leaf insects have evolved in order to deceive insectivorous predators that they are sticks or leaves. The forms of deception of plants and animals differ from human forms of deception in that they are simply the evolved characteristics of these animals and plants. The plants and animals are not aware that they are being deceptive and, of course, they do not decide to deceive.
