许多动物利用保护色来逃避猎捕，包括利用斑纹降低被天敌发现的风险（伪装），向天敌暗示自己有毒或不可食用（警告色），或者装扮成其它动物或物体（“拟态”和“伪装”）。
除此以外，很多小动物例如蝴蝶、蛾子和鱼类拥有两对甚至多对“眼点”（eye spot）。许多眼点能吓跑掠食者，可以十分有效地防止天敌的攻击。在过去长达150年里，人们都认定这是因为眼点模仿了掠食者自己的天敌的眼睛的缘故。但是，由剑桥大学的动物学家Martin Stevens、Chloe Hardman 和Claire Stubbins等人进行的最近研究表明，这一流行观点没有任何实验依据。
根据2月13日在线发表于《行为生态学》（Behavioral Ecology）上的研究结果，蝴蝶等小动物身上的环状斑纹能有效对抗掠食者，是因为这些斑纹本身十分显眼，而不是因为它们模仿了掠食者天敌的眼睛。
Stevens、Hardman和Stubbins用防潮纸做成假蛾子，把各种形状、各种大小、数目不等、对眼睛模仿程度不一的眼点组成吓人的图案，用高清打印机打印到纸上，他们在这些假蛾子身上拴上小虫子，然后钉到落叶混交林里的各种树上，观测野生鸟类对这些假蛾子的反应。
动物学家发现，与其它印着显著图案的人造蛾子相比，身上带有环状斑纹的人造蛾子受到的攻击不见得更少。他们发现，总的说来，最能吓退掠食者的眼点恰恰是那些花纹最大、最多、最显眼的眼点。
Stevens博士解释说：“和那些身带眼状斑纹的假蛾子相比，鸟儿们一样不喜欢长着条形和方形图案的蛾子。由此我们可以断言，眼点是否奏效，主要看它们是否鲜艳和显眼，而不是因为它们模仿了掠食者天敌的眼睛。这说明很多动物身上的环形斑纹，并不是像很多人说的那样，是在模仿其它动物的眼睛。”（科学网 崔月雷/编译）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
（Behavioral Ecology），doi:10.1093/beheco/arm162，Martin Stevens, Claire L. Stubbins
Conspicuousness, not eye mimicry, makes "eyespots" effective antipredator signals
Martin Stevens, Chloe J. Hardman and Claire L. Stubbins
Abstract
Many animals bear colors and patterns to reduce the risk of predation from visually hunting predators, including warning colors, camouflage, and mimicry. In addition, various species possess paired circular features often called "eyespots," which may intimidate or startle predators preventing or postponing an attack. Most explanations for how eyespots work assert that they mimic the eyes of the predators own enemies. However, recent work has indicated that spots may reduce the risk of predation based purely on how conspicuous they are to a predator's visual system. Here, we use a field technique involving artificial prey marked with stimuli of various shapes, numbers, and sizes, presented to avian predators in the field, to distinguish between the eye mimicry and conspicuousness theories. In 3 experiments, we find that the features which make effective antipredator wing markings are large size and higher numbers of spots. Stimuli with circles survived no better than those marked with other conspicuous shapes such as bars, and changing the spatial construction of the spots to increase the level of eye mimicry had no effect on the protective value of the spots. These experiments support other recent work indicating that conspicuousness, and not eye mimicry, is important in promoting avoidance behavior in predators and that eyespots on real animals need not necessarily, as most accounts claim, mimic the eyes of other animals.
