Have you ever wondered why butterflies are so beautiful? After all, they don't seem to need it for anything. Scientists seem to have found the answer. And it has to do with WW1 ships.
When you look at a swallowtail or even a simple urticaria, you wonder why nature created such a beautiful creature? The usual explanations like camouflage painting with butterflies don't work: well, against what kind of background can you hide with such bright painting, especially in the forest? A new study published in the journal Nature offers a solution to this mystery. Biologists have long hypothesized that contrasting multicolored patterns confuse the predator's visual system, preventing it from accurately estimating the prey's speed and direction of movement. This hypothesis, called the blind movement effect, has so far had little empirical evidence. The new work provides a reliable experimental basis for it.