eyespot
Americannoun
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a small area of light-sensitive pigment in some protozoans, algae, and other simple organisms
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an eyelike marking, as on the wings of certain butterflies
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An area that is sensitive to light and functions somewhat like an eye, found in certain single-celled organisms as well as many invertebrate animals.
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A round marking resembling an eye, as on the tail feather of a peacock.
Etymology
Origin of eyespot
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The 30-centimeter-long adult grows out of a larva that is little more than a sesame seed–size blob with an eyespot at one end and a band of cilia around its body.
From Science Magazine • Jan. 16, 2023
Comparison of the number of birds fleeing from butterflies with and without eyespots suggests that selection has occurred in butterflies in favor of the eyespot trait, which mimics a predator of the bird.
From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022
Some of the earliest renditions might have been a simple pit eye, a kind of pit of tissue lined with light receptors, or what scientists call an eyespot, a simple region that detects light.
From Scientific American • May 19, 2021
In one large glob of amber, the extended wing of a butterflylike lacewing shows a decoy eyespot that may have helped misdirect predators.
From Science Magazine • May 23, 2019
The `piece de resistance' of the back wing, is the eyespot.
From Moths of the Limberlost by Stratton-Porter, Gene
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.