Butterfly Eyes, and two-faced insects

in naturephotography •  7 years ago 

Montreal BioDome - Morpho Butterfly - Outside
Morpho Butterfly - The outside

The coloration of these butterflies is said to be attributed to a natural phenomenon called Müllerian mimicry.

Honestly though, I'm most fascinated by their magnificent eyes.

Montreal Biodome - Morpho Butterfly - Inside
Morpho Butterfly - The inside

It's hard to believe these shots are both of one butterfly. From the outside, the camouflage and the misguiding eyes; on the other side, an eye-catching fluorescent blue.

Müllerian mimicry

"Müllerian mimicry is a natural phenomenon in which two or more unprofitable (often, distasteful) species, that may or may not be closely related and share one or more common predators, have come to mimic each other's honest warning signals, to their mutual benefit, since predators can learn to avoid all of them with fewer experiences. It is named after the German naturalist Fritz Müller, who first proposed the concept in 1878, supporting his theory with the first mathematical model of frequency-dependent selection, one of the first such models anywhere in biology."

  • Wikipedia.org

Photo by @simgooder, taken at the Montreal Biodome.

Follow @simgooder for more nature-nerdiness.

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