A new study led by researchers from The University of Western Australia has discovered a species of moth which looks remarkably like a curved leaf, even though its wings are flat.
The research, published today in Current Biology, revealed that the moth uses specialised scales in its wings to produce an illusion of three-dimensional leaf shape.
Lead author Dr Jennifer Kelley from UWA's School of Biological Sciences, said that the moth was using a type of camouflage known as masquerade, where it pretends to be an object that is uninteresting to predators such as birds.
"It is important for moths to be camouflaged during the day when they are resting," Dr Kelley said.
"What is remarkable about our finding, is that the moths are using nanostructures in their wing scales to produce a shiny surface on specific regions of their wing.
"These shiny patches would be the curved parts of a leaf which reflect the light."
The research, which was conducted in collaboration with biologists, mathematicians and physicists at Murdoch University and the University of Salzburg, Austria, used state-of-the-art imaging tools to reveal the moth's clever optical tricks.
"Remarkably, the moth is exploiting the laws of physics – how light is reflected off a curved surface – to create the illusion of a 3D leaf shape," Dr Kelley said.
"The strategy of masquerade relies on predators being able to classify objects, so our findings suggest that these 3D subtle shape cues play an important role in the deception."
