Shop owner Vikash Chauhan was standing outside his Arkansas store when something unusual caught his eye.
From the corner of the brick wall, two snake-like heads appeared to be peeking out — a sight startling enough to make anyone pause.
“[I thought], ‘How come those snakes are sitting there?’” Chauhan told The Dodo. “Then I looked carefully …”
What he saw wasn’t snakes at all.
He captured the discovery on video:
As Chauhan stepped closer, the truth came into focus: it was actually a single insect whose wing pattern created a striking illusion.
The “snakes” were the wingtips of a cecropia moth, one of the largest and rarest moth species native to North America. Chauhan, who first thought it was a butterfly, was stunned by the discovery — and he managed to capture it on video.
“I was shocked,” he said.
It turns out the confusion was perfectly understandable. According to Dr. Austin K. Jones, life sciences instructor at the University of Arkansas, the moth’s markings may be designed to trick predators.
“Much as with the Atlas moth, the eyespots near the tips of the wings have been hypothesized to mimic snakes, or at least something more threatening than a moth,” Jones explained. “These have become harder to find in recent years, from reports I’ve read. Nice find!”
So while there were no snakes sneaking around Chauhan’s storefront that day, he did witness something equally incredible — a rare glimpse of nature’s clever camouflage at work.
