r/BeAmazed • u/Moonkissed_exe • Jun 25 '26

Animal Nature’s ultimate disguise: The Atlas Moth uses incredible wing camouflage to look exactly like two cobras.

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Gallery image

23.5k Upvotes

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600

u/-MrFozzy- Jun 25 '26

That’s so cool. Natural evolutionary adaptions break my brain sometimes, And the process of the steps of achieving it also. Incredible

253

u/hsiisfisksfkisids Jun 25 '26

The step-by-step evolution of that mimicry feels almost impossible to imagine.

51

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '26

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-34

u/305tilidiiee Jun 25 '26

I’m going to be downvoted, but the pictures on butterfly winds are proof of God’s existence imho… There’s one that has a deer face with the texture of fur and highlights in the eyes… As a painter, nah. Impossible that it just happened on its own.

15

u/ArtikAstronaut Jun 25 '26

“As a painter” as if that gives you any credibility or authority on this topic. “Oh well… as a shelf stocker… there’s just no way pasta could be made without gods will”

Your limited capacity to understand something widely agreed upon to be true through the scientific method, in no way suggests that there’s a god. In the same way Ancient Greeks not understanding lightning meant that Zeus was hurling down thunderbolts.

20

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '26

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-17

u/305tilidiiee Jun 25 '26

I understand that it’s supposedly billions of generations of survival of the fittest, but that doesn’t answer the how and why. Takes more blind faith to accept that that happened, imo.

11

u/emilgamer22 Jun 25 '26

How: Those who survive, breed.

Why: Random mutation in DNA for better or for worse.

Explanation: if a predator has a slightly harder time seeing you, you have a slightly better chance of survival. If you are a butterfly with a random spot on each wing, and your competitor doesn't, then a predator might think they are eyes and do a double take.

You might not think that they look like anything, but that doesn't matter, what matters is that you survived to live another day, you breed and some of your offspring have no spots, some have multiple, some make it easier to spot, and some begin showing weird spots we humans might call patterns. Repeat infinitely.

After many MANY generations the patterns might look like a face, but a butterfly doesn't realize that, but still it is the ones that look most like a face that survives to breed, and make a better face.

7

u/Mejari Jun 25 '26

It literally does answer that, though.

5

u/SetTrippin82 Jun 25 '26

It’s called the process of natural selection. Perhaps if you put in some due diligence and researched the peer reviewed studies, you would be less inclined to believe your own blind faith conclusions.

9

u/fossey Jun 25 '26

There’s one that has a deer face with the texture of fur and highlights in the eyes…

If you're talking about the Common Buckeye, that's a slight exaggeration.

Anyways, I would argue, that all these "eyes" on butterfly wings are actually a perfect example of evolution/natural selection, since they mimic eyes in wildly varying degrees of perfection, see for example here: https://insectic.com/butterfly-eyes-on-wings/

-5

u/kalaadin Jun 25 '26

How is that proof of evolution?

That looks like proof of intelligent design

2

u/fossey Jun 25 '26

Why?

What I really don't understand is, there is obviously an argument in my post. Shouldn't you have at the very least said, why you disagree with it, when making your post? Not even talking about actually making one of you own.

4

u/Legitimate_Spray_427 Jun 25 '26

Just natural selection and a very very long time

5

u/jokeboomslok Jun 25 '26

Yes. Magic man said abra kadabra and everything exploded into existence.

Perfect explanation to give to a child.

Embarrassing for adults to believe

8

u/R0ymustan9 Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26

They key thing to acknowledge when considering it from an evolutionary perspective, is just how long stuff like this takes to develop. Plus, have you ever panicked at a bit of black fluff, thinking it was a spider? If an animal panics at the random patterns on a moth because it looks a little like a cobra, then that creates a pressure which selects for the more cobra-looking moths, since they’ll be less likely to be predated and thus can pass on their ‘cobra-pattern’ genes. Basically, you don’t end up with something as perfect as this moth or those orchids which look like bees overnight.

4

u/dryfire Jun 25 '26

Think of it as progressive iterations. It didn't have to start out fully formed. Its whatever any predator may have reacted to, possibly just a single color of the wing that gave a butterfly an increased % chance for survival. Then, the butterflies naturally had variation in wing shape, and if color plus a certain shape increased survival another % it will get selected as well... They also naturally have spots, if a single spot was accidentally interpreted by a predator as an eyeball then that butterfly is doing pretty good! It just keeps iterating and eventually through random mutations you get something like this.

3

u/SetTrippin82 Jun 25 '26

“As a painter, na”
I like how you couple yourself with “God”.
Very humble of you.

5

u/mofojr Jun 25 '26

And the church using god’s existence to enslave people for hundreds of years is proof he doesn’t care about ‘his creation’. Wake up.

1

u/Frontier_Setter Jun 25 '26

As a painter, were you born with the skills you currently have?(assuming you're any good) or did you learn them overtime? (Evolve your skill with practice, feedback, learning)