Aug 06, 2019 07:00:00

Studies show that worms that mimic tree branches can sense color even on the skin

It was newly discovered that when simulating, a type of

acupuncture moxibustion ' Oshimo frieda shak ' uses the ' skin ' instead of his own eyes to sense the surrounding environment.

Adaptive color change and background choice behavior in peppered moth caterpillars is mediated by extraocular photoreception | Communications Biology
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-019-0502-7

Caterpillar moth perceptive color through their skin to match their body color to the background | MPI CE: PR Eacock 2019
http://www.ice.mpg.de/ext/index.php?id=1570

Chameleons, octopuses, and some insects perform ' simulation ' to assimilate their bodies into the surrounding environment so that they can not be eaten by predators. A research team from the Max Planck Institute of Science and Ecology in Germany changes its body color to a color close to that of the attached tree in order to understand how the insects mimicking recognize the surroundings . We closed eyes of the larva of Oshimofuriedashak, a kind of moth, and conducted an experiment on the effects that occur on its mimicry.

The left side of the image is the head of the caterpillar of Oshimo flieda shak, and the part circled in yellow is the eye. In this experiment, as shown on the right side of the image, I used acrylic paint to cover the eyes of Oshimo Flieda Shak.

The research team observed the change in body color by stopping the eyes of Oshimofuliedashak larvae and those of Oshimofuriedashak larvae that were not blinded as a

control group in the tea, green, black, and white bars. . As a result of observation, it turned out that the larva of Oshimo flieda shak whose eyes are closed changes his body color according to the color of the stick. Although there was a difference between the color of the protective color, saturation, and brightness between the larvae of the open-ended moth and the normal larvae, the difference is that they can not be perceived by the natural enemy, the blue oar . In other words, it turned out that the 'simulation of the mimicry' of the larvae of Oshimofuriedashaku did not change even though it was blinded.

In addition, if you let the larvae of the invisible Oshimofuriedashak whose body color has already changed to a branch of a color different from the body color, the Osiimofuriadashaku larvae move to the branch that suits their body color. Of. From this, it was reconfirmed that the larvae of Oshimo flieda shak can recognize the surrounding color even if the eyes are closed.

As a result of research conducted by the research team on the genes of Oshimo frieda shak, it was found that genes related to vision were expressed not only in the head but also in the body. Furthermore, it seems that there were even visual genes that were expressed more on the body surface than on the head. The research team is conducting research on the assumption that this gene, which is often expressed on the surface side, is related to the recognition of surrounding colors.