When you are staring at some portraits, do you feel that the characters in the painting are also staring at you? Even if you walk around the room, the eyes of the people in the painting are following you?

When you are staring at some portraits, do you feel that the characters in the painting are also staring at you? Even if you walk around the room, the eyes of the people in the painting are following you?

This visual illusion is called the "Mona Lisa effect", named after the famous mysterious painting of da Vinci - when the artist depicts the pupils in the work are completely centered, eye contact is guaranteed no matter where the visitor stands - to the left, right, or in front of the painting.

In nature, evolution is also like an artist who shapes all living things - in a life-and-death way, some creatures have gained the Mona Lisa effect inspiration.

Eyes point

Many species of fish, butterflies, moths, mantis and beetles have pairs of round marks on their bodies, which usually look like eyes. Some theories suggest that eye spots (spots) have the effect of "passive aiming" - which can divert the predator's attention to non-important body parts of the prey - being bitten off is better than losing the head.

But is drawing a target on yourself really helpful for survival?

should have other benefits. For example, the Hemiscyllium ocellatum has two large eye spots, one behind each pectoral fin. Someone discovered that this made the predator seem hesitant when attacking it.

is also why another more respected view is that the eye point can intimidate and stop the predator's attack: the feeling of a mantis stalking the cicada oriole behind.

In particular, the wings of some butterflies and moths evolved into the appearance that the predator may look like the face of something huge and dangerous; and the predator mistakenly thought that the big eye point was to be the eyes of the predator.

Peacock butterfly Perfect eye point

We have a stereotype , butterflies die in winter.

In fact, peacock butterfly (Aglais io) will hibernate in winter and then lay eggs in early spring. Peacock Butterfly is spread throughout our Eurasian continents. Like many other hibernating butterfly, Peacock Butterfly has evolved an anti-predator defense mechanism, among which the most obvious defense comes from the four large eye spots on its wings.

Usually for hibernating butterflies, the first line of defense against birds predators is secret, in which the butterflies blend into their environment by imitating a leaf and keeping it motionless.

And peacock butterflies develop a second line of defense: when attacked, they spread their wings and reveal their eye points— brightly colored concentric circles to show a daunting threat, which makes it easier for butterflies to escape predators than dead leaf mimicry.

and even some butterflies have eye points + wing color forms, which are exactly the same as Raptors and hibernators4 owls.

Since imitating eyes to scare people, in this case, the direct eye point will be the most threatening - just like those portraits where eyes seem to follow you around the room, the eye point needs to maintain eye contact with the predator in all directions without dead corners.

A researcher conducted an experiment to test the reaction of birds (volunteer: chicks) when their favorite food was drawn on three different types of eye points.

The three types of eye points are: leftward, rightward, and perfect concentric circles like peacock butterflies. Will the direction of gaze affect the chicken's motivation for attack?

perfect stare death

chick charge.

When the eye spots arranged on the food are tilted to the left, the chicks approach from the left slowly and hesitate; and when the eye spots tilted to the right, the chicks appear to shrink from the right. However, as the chicks approach from the other side, they run fast, quickly approaching the food and eating.

. Facing food with perfect concentric circle eye spots, the chicks approached from three directions, and were very slow and cautious. There are even some "very cowardly" chicks who are scared to make alarms, while those who are "more cowardly" will turn around and run away.(You can't laugh at the chicks. The big eyeballs are so scared that the ox can see them in the wild)

This time, in addition to proving that the eye points can serve as anti-predation purposes (which indicates that bird predators feel that the eye points are potential enemies), it further confirms the "Mona Lisa effect" - the evolution artist, which gives peacock butterflies an all-round, perfect death gaze.

written in the end

Natural evolution is undoubtedly a great artist, but humans are certainly not to be outdone.

Evolutionary biologists are particularly interested in butterfly wings pattern because they provide an easy-to-understand model of how natural selection can choose from many possible variations.

And scientists who are in hand with gene editing technology have started to attack butterflies - By using CRISPR genome editing technology, researchers removed a gene called spalt, and then the butterfly's large round eye dot mark disappeared.

tsk, mutation is the raw material for evolution. When we grasp gene editing technology in the future, what kind of weird world will we create?

Author thanks for your attention (- _-)