NO ONE likes being stared at. It has long been assumed that the eyespots of butterflies and moths tap into just that fear, but the true function of such wing patterns might be much simpler.
Martin Stevens at the University of Cambridge and colleagues made fake butterflies with a range of patterns on their wings. Some were round and “eye-like”, others had square or barred patterns. They placed the fake insects in woodland, then recorded any bird attacks on them. The team thought that if eyespots function as a deterrent because they look like eyes then the butterflies with eye-like…
