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Ornate Bella Moth
(Utetheisa ornatrix)

Ornate Bella Moth.JPG

Ornate Bella Moth (Utetheisa ornatrix).  Photo by Heather Circelli, with permission.

Ornate Bella Moth (Utetheisa ornatrix).  Photo by Laura Gaudette, distributed under a CCBY 4.0 license.

Fun Facts:

Bright colors and patterns (can vary)  warn predators it is poisonous or unpalatable.

This is an example of aposematism (from Ancient Greek apo (away) and sema (sign)).

 

​​High contrast patterns (like stripes or spots) when seen from far away actually blend together, providing distance dependent camouflage (allowing an animal to warn nearby predators (like birds) but appearing invisible to those farther away).

 

It has been proposed that aposematism played a role in human evolution, with body odor carrying a warning to predators of large hominids able to defend themselves with weapons.

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