Eyespot (mimicry)

Eyespot (mimicry)

An eyespot (sometimes ocellus) is an eye-like marking. They are found on butterflies, reptiles and birds. In members of the Felidae family (such as the Leopard Cat and leopard), ocelli are white circular markings on the backs of the ears.

Eyespots may be a form of automimicry in which a spot on the body of an animal resembles an eye of a different animal to deceive potential predator or prey species, or to draw a predator's attention away from the most vulnerable body parts. Alternatively, a marking resembling an eye in butterflies and moths and certain other insects as well as the sunbittern, a bird; it is thought that such spots do not serve a mimicry function. In some cases, these spots may play a role in intraspecies communication or reproduction; in others, however, the evolutionary function of the spots is not understood.

In many species, such markings provide protection by appearing threatening or by diverting attention away from vital body parts (automimicry); see Stevens (2005) for a review. The white spots on the back of Felidae ears serve a social function by communicating the animal's mental state (excited, calm, aggressive, etc.) to conspecifics in the gloom of dense forest or in tall grass.

References

* (2005): The role of eyespots as anti-predator mechanisms, principally demonstrated in the Lepidoptera. "Biol. Rev." 80(4): 573–588. doi|10.1017/S1464793105006810 (HTML abstract)

See also

*Ocellus


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Eyespot — can mean: * Eyespot (mimicry), a color mark that looks somewhat like an eye, sometimes called ocellus. * Eyespots, sensory organs in flatworms * Eyespot apparatus (or stigma ), a photoreceptive organelle found in the flagellate (motile) cells… …   Wikipedia

  • Animal coloration — Chapman s Zebras in Botswana, displaying their outline disrupting camouflage Animal coloration has been a topic of interest and research in biology for well over a century. According to Charles Darwin s 1859 theory of natural selection,[1 …   Wikipedia

  • Crypsis — This article is about organisms that are difficult to detect. For organisms that are difficult to distinguish, see Cryptic species complex. For animals whose existence has not been demonstrated, see cryptozoology. For the genus of grasses, see… …   Wikipedia

  • Simple eye in invertebrates — For eye like markings, see eyespot (mimicry). Ocellus redirects here. For the Celtic god, see Ocelus. Head of Polistes A simple eye (sometimes called a pigment pit[1] …   Wikipedia

  • Countershading — employed by the grey reef shark. The original drawings from Thayer s 1902 pate …   Wikipedia

  • Chromatophore — Zebrafish chromatophores mediate background adaptation on exposure to dark (top) and light environments (bottom). Chromatophores are pigment containing and light reflecting cells found in amphibians, fish, reptiles, crustaceans, and cephalopods.… …   Wikipedia

  • Evolution of color vision — Color vision, a proximate adaptation of the vision sensory modality, allows for the discrimination of light based on its wavelength components. Contents 1 Invertebrates 2 Vertebrates 3 See also 4 Referen …   Wikipedia

  • Mammalian eye — Eye Schematic diagram of the human eye …   Wikipedia

  • Arthropod eye — Anatomy of the compound eye of an insect The arthropods ancestrally possessed compound eyes, but the type and origin of this eye varies between groups, and some taxa have secondarily developed simple eyes. The organ s development through the… …   Wikipedia

  • Cephalopod eye — Vertebrate …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”