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tags:eyes
rel: Disguises
NOTE
I’m curious about multiple eyes, or eyes forming on things “by default.”
The eye has a distinctive shape and dark coloration dictated by its function, and it is housed in the vulnerable head, making it a natural target for predators. It can be camouflaged by a suitable disruptive pattern arranged to run up to or through the eye, sometimes forming a camouflage eyestripe.
Thought
The eye is conspicuous otherwise. Maybe something with the eye being an extremely specialized organ that has “gone its own way” like how if I threw some night vision goggles on my head I’d see wonderfully in dark but also would have distinct night vision goggles on my head with no emphasis for discreetness.
Eyespots
rel:Butterfly Wings
Eyespots are markings resembling eyes that appear on butterflies, cats, birds and fishes.
Possible explanations
- form of mimicry in which the spot on a body of the animal resembles the eye of another animal, to deceive potential predators or prey species.
- form of self mimicry to draw attention away from the most vulnerable spots on the animal.
- serve to appear inedible or dangerous.
Thought
That concept of evolving to look like something else. The “eye” (if it is meant to resemble that) present on wing on a butterfly doesn’t look at all like the visual system of a butterfly. Imagine my body but with some feature that is part of another creature in my environment.
They may, like peacock feathers, serve as a role in intraspecies courtship.
Eyespots painted on the rumps of cows have been shown to reduce cattle predation in Africa. The study authors, Cameron Radford and colleagues, note that in the Sundarbans, forest users wear face masks with eye markings on the backs of their heads in the hope of reducing tiger attacks. In the study on 2061 cattle in 14 herds over 4 years, 683 were given eye markings, 543 were painted with crosses, and 835 were unpainted. None of the eyed cattle were predated, but 4 cross-marked and 15 unmarked cattle were killed, one by a leopard, the rest by lions. Both the eyespots and the cross markings provided statistically significant protection. The cattle were always in mixed groups of marked and unmarked animals; it is not known whether marking all animals in a herd would provide effective protection