Painting lice (IMAGE) University of Utah Caption The biologists painted the backs of feather lice, half with black paint, and half with white paint, and put them on black, gray and white pigeons. Lice painted the 'wrong' color -- black lice on white feathers and vice versa -- were 40 percent more likely to be preened than cryptically colored lice. Credit Adapted from Bush et. al. 2019. Evo Letters Usage Restrictions reuse with attribution License Licensed content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.