Field experiments on the effectiveness of ‘eyespots’ as predator deterrents

By Martin Stevens, E. Hopkins, W. Hinde, Amabel Adcock, Yvonne Connolly, Tom Troscianko, Innes C. Cuthill. 2007

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Color change and camouflage in juvenile shore crabs Carcinus maenas (2014, methodology): “We calculated the midpoint gray between white and black on a ratio scale (as Stevens et al., 2007b).”
Animal visual illusion and confusion: the importance of a perceptual perspective (2014, background): “A number of studies with artificial prey have provided evidence that conspicuous patterns such as eyespots confer survival benefits irrespective of their shape, provided they have high contrast within the ring pattern, and also with the visual background (Stevens et al. 2007; Stevens, Hardman, et al”
Conspicuousness, not eye mimicry, makes "eyespots" effective antipredator signals (2008, background): “2005, 2007) and that continuously visible spots can intimidate predators, prolonging the survival of artificial prey (Stevens et al. 2007).”
Feeding by lepidopteran larvae is dangerous: A review of caterpillars’ chemical, physiological, morphological, and behavioral defenses against natural enemies (2012, background): “…eye-spots as anti-predator adaptations have been examined in various contexts, in both adult and larval Lepidoptera (Blest, 1957; Shirota, 1980; Stevens et al., 2007, 2008; Kodandaramalah et al., 2009), studies gathering further empirical data to test the robustness of this hypothesis would…”