Different animals are known to have camouflage capabilities as their way of living and surviving. They have systems in their bodies that allow perception of color and light aside from their eyes. The peppered moth (Biston betularia) is an example of an insect that does this.
Researchers painted the eyes of peppered moth caterpillars to test if they could still adapt the colors of their background, even if they cannot see. These critters changed their colors to that of their respective background colors as if they were not blindfolded in the first place.
Amy Eacock, one of the lead authors of the new study and currently a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, said, "It was completely surprising to me that blindfolded caterpillars are still able to pick a branch that best matches their color. I don’t think my supervisor, Ilik Saccheri, believed me until he saw it by himself.”
Image: Arjen van’t Hof, University of Liverpool
A) Control peppered moth caterpillar with its 6 uncovered eyes circled in yellow. B) Blindfolded peppered moth caterpillar with eyes covered by black acrylic paint. Image: Nature Communications.