Butterfly with a false eye

Some butterflies have large round circles on their wings.  they do thais as a false eye.  The evolutionary theory bend this coloration pattern is that the false eye gives the appearance to birds or other predators that the eye is on its wings.  If the predator attacks the eye, the butterfly may still be able to escape with only a damaged wing.

I would think that birds would be smart enough to figure out which is the ight end of the butterfly to attack.  Maybe this false eye ruse works only on reptiles, as they appear to be a lot less clever than birds.

This week we are showing photos of Dublin, Ireland, on our Viva la Voyage travel photo site.