(February 09, 2012) Conventional wisdom says a zebra's black-and-white stripes camouflage the animal in tall grass - the better to evade the colorblind lion. But a new study says the pattern scrambles the vision of a tinier biter: the bloodsucking horsefly.

Horseflies, the females of which feed on blood, are attracted to polarized light - light waves that are oriented in a particular direction and that we experience as glare. This glare lures the bugs most likely because it resembles light reflected off water, where they lay their eggs.

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