英国埃克塞特大学Jolyon Troscianko团队宣布他们的最新研究探明了蝴蝶在飞行中的翅膀图案创造了强大的虚幻运动线索。相关论文发表在2026年9月30日出版的《自然》杂志上。

斑马和蛇身上令人眼花缭乱的条纹长期以来被认为会干扰捕食者的运动感知，但这一假说迄今获得的实证支持很少。蝴蝶展现出极其多样且高对比度的翅膀图案，其功能引发了激烈的理论争论和研究。在此，研究人员提出，蝴蝶翅膀图案与飞行动力学协同作用，产生迷惑捕食者的视觉错觉。他们使用多种探究方法并结合受生物启发的建模来支持这一假说：高速拍摄的自由飞行蝴蝶起飞展示出误导性运动线索的产生；系统发育控制分析表明这是一种在演化上广泛存在的策略；计算演化实验独立趋同于高对比度的蝴蝶样翅膀图案；行为实验验证了模型预测。结果表明，蝴蝶翅膀图案和飞行动力学产生强大的错觉运动效应，可能代表了移动动物中最成功的视觉防御策略之一。

附：英文原文

Title: Butterfly wing patterns in flight create powerful illusory motion cues

Author: Hancock, George R. A., Briolat, Emmanuelle S., Hughes, Anna E., Kelley, Laura A., Troscianko, Jolyon

Issue&Volume: 2026-09-30

Abstract: The dazzling stripes found on zebras and snakes have long been thought to interfere with predator motion perception1,2, but this hypothesis has received little empirical support so far3. Butterflies show enormously diverse and high-contrast wing patterns, the function of which has inspired intense theoretical debate and research4. Here we suggest that butterfly wing patterns work in tandem with flight dynamics to create visual illusions that confuse predators. We use multiple lines of enquiry with biologically inspired modelling to support this hypothesis: free-flight butterfly take-offs filmed at high speed demonstrate the creation of misleading motion cues; phylogenetically controlled analyses demonstrate that this is an evolutionarily widespread strategy; in silico evolution experiments independently converge on high-contrast butterfly-like wing patterns; and behavioural experiments validate model predictions. Our results show that butterfly wing patterns and flight dynamics create powerful illusory motion effects, potentially representing one of the most successful visual defence strategies in moving animals.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-11062-w

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-11062-w