Evolution is looking at you

Evolution was at work when eyespots eventually appeared on the wings of butterflies and moths. This trick was so successful, that it was repeated over and over again. Eyespots are a form of mimicry in which a spot on an animal body resembles an eye of a different animal, helping to deceive potential predators. This is evolution following evolution: eyespots developed only when the evolution of eyes themselves was well underway. Depicted is a selection of eye-spotted Lepidoptera. They sit on an ancient oak tree that, as a symbol of the evolutionary tree, was borrowed from Ernst Haeckel, Darwin’s ardent German propagandist.

Evolution is looking at you
   2012, watercolour (39 x 27 cm)

 Images of butterflies and moths are based on:
1 (Upper) Common Buckeye / Junonia coenia 
2 (Centre, left) Io moth / Automeris io 
3 (Centre, right) ( A Saturnid)  / Automeris egeus
4 (Bottom, left) Owl butterfly / Caligo teucer
5 (Bottom, right) Polyphemus Moth / Antheraea polyphemus