What is "crypsis"

n. (context biology English) The ability of an organism to avoid observation.

In ecology, crypsis is the ability of an animal to avoid observation or detection by other animals. It may be a predation strategy or an antipredator adaptation. Methods include camouflage, nocturnality, subterranean lifestyle, and mimicry. Crypsis can involve visual, olfactory (with pheromones), or auditory concealment. When it is visual, the term cryptic coloration, effectively a synonym for animal camouflage, is sometimes used, but many different methods of camouflage are employed by animals.

Crypsis has two distinct meanings in biology:

1. organisms that hide themselves: crypsis
2. organisms that are difficult to distinguish: crypsis (taxonomy)

Crypsis is an African and Eurasian plant in the grass samily sometimes referred to as pricklegrass.

These are annual grasses with short leaves. A few species are invasive weeds outside their native ranges.

1. Crypsis aculeata - from Portugal and Mauritania to Korea
2. Crypsis acuminata - from Turkey to Kazakhstan
3. Crypsis alopecuroides - from Portugal and Morocco to Korea; introduced in western North America ( British Columbia + western USA)
4. Crypsis factorovskyi - Caucasus, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan
5. Crypsis hadjikyriakou - Cyprus
6. Crypsis minuartioides - Sharon Plain in northwestern Israel
7. Crypsis schoenoides - from Britain to China + Pakistan + Mozambique; introduced in North America (western USA, Great Lakes region, Baja California)
8. Crypsis turkestanica - Central Asia, Caucasus, western Siberia, southern European Russia
9. Crypsis vaginiflora - Africa; Middle East, India, Pakistan; introduced in North America ( Idaho, Oregon, California, Baja California)

see Muhlenbergia Munroa Phleum Rhizocephalus Sporobolus Urochondra