Butterflies use optical illusions to dodge predators

(essex.ac.uk)

73 points | by gmays 15 hours ago

9 comments

  • lopis 8 hours ago
    I don't understand articles that are completely about a piece of media, but don't show or link to any piece of said media. This article cannot be effective without a video.
    • Utilera 7 hours ago
      Even a 10-second slow-motion clip would probably explain the result better than half the article
      • properbrew 1 hour ago
        > “The first slow-motion video of a butterfly I put through our bird-vision computer model was glowing with downwards motion even though the butterfly was moving up.

        Yep, really would have loved to see that video. Why mention it and not link to it.

  • Utilera 7 hours ago
    What I like about this is that the camouflage isn't really in the pattern itself, but in the interaction between the pattern, the wing deformation, and the predator's visual system.
  • SaintGhurka 2 hours ago
    A rabbit's high-contrast cottontail serves a similar purpose.

    Predators focus on the tail but as the body turns, the tail very briefly appears to continue in the same direction or momentarily disappears. The predator is forced to constantly refocus, creating lots of opportunities for them to make a mistake.

  • scun 14 hours ago
    Sounds like the ol' razzle dazzle

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazzle_camouflage

    • schiffern 5 hours ago
      Is this (in effect) "flood the zone" for certain targeted information theoretic chokepoints within the visual processing system? Similar to false cockpits on planes, you're adversarially and intentionally creating additional visual processing work?

      PS, still a great musical...

  • yathern 14 hours ago
    > The team combined multiple lines of evidence. They used a high-speed camera to film real butterflies taking off at over 1,000 frames per second to capture how their patterns behave in flight, as seen through the eyes of a bird.

    > To test how patterns affected real attacks, 100 volunteers acted as “predators”, trying to catch virtual butterflies on a touchscreen.

    This sounds fascinating, and I'd love to see footage demonstrating the barber-pole effect. If that's not available, I'd alternatively love to see footage of volunteers trying to tap butterflies on an iPad.

    • Utilera 7 hours ago
      The description is interesting enough that it almost feels incomplete without the video
  • anon48293 25 minutes ago
    > “To test how patterns affected real attacks, 100 volunteers acted as “predators”, trying to catch virtual butterflies on a touchscreen.”

    I’d love to play this game

  • isolay 8 hours ago
    Well, what the kids don’t learn in biology class, they can still learn on HN.
  • esalman 10 hours ago
    This weekend while cleaning dry leaves in our backyard we discovered a large moth. We all mistook it fot another dry leaf until it started fluttering. Fabulous stuff.
  • anthk 14 hours ago
    This is Micheal Levin-level mind blowing. His theory can be shortened to "there's intelligence in really small discrete parts of Biological entities".
    • suddenlybananas 5 hours ago
      How is that different from just saying "evolutionary adaptive changes can seem clever".