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In our posts about the current butterfly exhibition at Montreal's Botanical Garden, neither I nor ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rysmiel mentioned that Atlas moths have translucent patches in their wings. The effect is subtle: I didn't notice it until I'd seen them against two different-colored surfaces. The first temptation is to conclude that those patches are pale green, or yellow, or brown, depending on what's behind the moth, because multi-colored moths and butterflies are well within the range of expectation.
In brief conversation, none of us came up with a good guess as to what purpose this serves, or how it evolved. The effect resembles that on Australian currency, but I doubt anyone has tried to counterfeit a moth, let alone done so often enough to exert evolutionary pressure.
rysmiel mentioned that Atlas moths have translucent patches in their wings. The effect is subtle: I didn't notice it until I'd seen them against two different-colored surfaces. The first temptation is to conclude that those patches are pale green, or yellow, or brown, depending on what's behind the moth, because multi-colored moths and butterflies are well within the range of expectation.In brief conversation, none of us came up with a good guess as to what purpose this serves, or how it evolved. The effect resembles that on Australian currency, but I doubt anyone has tried to counterfeit a moth, let alone done so often enough to exert evolutionary pressure.
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