4 ms·
I always thought the explanation I heard as a kid ("The stripes help them blend in to the tall grass of the savannah") was a bit lacking - this makes much more
by jdmitch 13y ago
I always thought the explanation I heard as a kid ("The stripes help them blend in to the tall grass of the savannah") was a bit lacking - this makes much more sense!
- unwind 13y agoAgreed. I did have to read it three times in order to feel sure that I understood what they were trying to say; I found the abstract rather opaque. So basically "it deters flies", right? I wonder why then, why would flies avoid striped skin?
- bazzargh 13y agoNo idea, but would idly speculate it could be related to the effect seen in bees, where stripes could be used to fool them into thinking the ground was closer or further away: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22915710 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22915710
- JoeAltmaier 13y agoFlies are tiny automatons with only a few neurons controlling their entire behavior. I'd guess stripes hack that simple control system in some dead-simple way.