Dragonfly
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. We're not talking about the colors of the rainbow...we're talking dragonflies! When you consider that these common insects have been around for more than 200 million years, you could say that our planet has always been a very colorful place!
But the dragonfly isn't born with his smashing fashion sense. He enters the world as a tiny egg--one of hundreds laid underwater by momma dragonfly. Next, he enters the larval stage, and is then known as a nymph. During this stage, the dragonfly nymph hangs out underwater, growing larger and larger, until he "sheds" his skin--and out pops a full-grown, full-blown dragonfly.
It can take an adult a couple of days to attain his splashy colors. And some species change colors as they get older. The Common Darter, for example, starts out a yellowish brown and winds up on the red side. Just think--if a bunch of these guys got together with some chameleons, you'd have quite a show!