Hello Beacon readers! 

The Camberwell beauty might have a lovely name and an even prettier appearance, but it and other butterflies may have developed their patterns for a more prosaic reason: Bold markings and beating wings create so-called "motion dazzle", an optical illusion that confuses its predators.

Researchers studying this natural defense combined high-speed filming of real butterflies and computer modelling, along with recruiting 100 human volunteers to carry out 3,000 virtual butterfly-catching experiments.

They watched videos and tried to catch butterflies by tapping a screen. The butterflies that had been predicted to produce stronger visual confusion seemed to succeed, causing participants to aim farther ⁠behind them.

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A Camberwell beauty butterfly in Le Planay, Areches-Beaufort, France. Emmanuelle Briolat/Handout via REUTERS

Jolyon Troscianko, a professor at the University of Exeter, said: "Predation experiments with live birds and butterflies would have been ideal in many ways, but likely impossible and unethical in practice."

The 2026 Cliff Diving World Series came down to the fifth and final stop in Polignano a Mare, Italy with Australia’s Rhiannan Iffland and Brit Aidan Heslop claiming the overall win for the season despite not reaching the podium at the finale.