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Butterflies use 'second head' on wings to trick predators

a butterfly with a false-head on its wings, with a speech bubble that reads 'you talkin' to me?'Getty Images

The Common Silverline butterfly has evolved to have fake antennae on its wings, making it look as if it has a second head

Do you ever wish you had two heads?

Perhaps you use one to concentrate on what the teacher is saying in class, and the other to look out the window or eat a snack.

No? Just us?

While humans might not have evolved second heads quite yet, many butterflies have cleverly developed wings to look just like second heads.

The theory is butterflies developed these wings to trick pesky predators.

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The hope is that predators take a chomp at the butterfly's wings, rather than their body.

This means they can keep vital organs safe and have a chance to escape.

Scientists at the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) believe they have worked out why butterflies have developed this remarkable ability.

How do the second heads work?

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Entomologists are scientists who study insects.

Entomologists at the IISER analysed pictures of 928 species of butterflies and their wings.

They identified patterns on wings which looked like second heads.

Wings can display traits like fake antennae, spots that look like eyes, a head-like shape and eye-catching colours to trick predators.

"We found that most false head traits in butterflies evolved in a correlated pattern," said researchers Tarunkishwor Yumnam and Ullasa Kodandaramaiah.

They believe that these traits evolved together, helping to protect many butterfly species from their predators.

"Our findings support the idea that a false head functions as an adaptive constellation for predator attack deflection," they write in their study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B in July.