Moth sucks fruit has an eerie similarity to the leaves
Bridget Gower
Found in northern Australia and Southeast Asia, moth has an incredible camouflage trick. When in fact smooth, an optical fantasy emerges, which look like a three-dimensional leaf with raised mid-ribs.
“Now if I give you a specimen, you wouldn’t think it was flat.” Jennifer Kelly at the University of Western Australia in Perth. “When we showed it to people, they were very confused by it. It really doesn’t look flat.”
Moth sucks fruit (Eudocima Aurantia) It resembles a leaf that tricks predators, especially birds, and thinks they are not food. First described in 1877, this portrait was previously thought to be caused by pigments and the shape of the body.
In fact, Moth uses very sophisticated physics to give the impression that it is a leaf, says Kelley.
Close-up view of moth wings sucking fruit
Jennifer Kelly et al. 2025
“The scales on moth’s wings are nanostructured,” says Kelly. They produce mirror-like reflections that create illusions of highlights on smooth, curved surfaces, she says. This is a form of structural color, the same mechanism that produces rainbow colors, such as the colors of rainbows on bubbles.
“We literally pretend to be 3D by placing these mirror-like structures in special places on our wings and creating shiny spots that fool our brains,” she says. Masu. “It’s a completely unique use of structural colour. Moth has been sitting in a museum for hundreds of years, and literally no one noticed it.”
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Source: www.newscientist.com