Biological and methodological pitfalls of meta-analyses in ecology and evolution: lessons from eyespot function studies

• Meta-analyses sometimes reach conflicting conclusions on similar questions. • Weak ecological framing and poor methodology can obscure genuine biological patterns. • Rigorous synthesis requires clear hypotheses, transparency and ecological context. • Key pitfalls are illustrated using recent eyespot pattern meta-analyses as case study. • We offer guidelines for conducting reliable evidence syntheses in behavioural ecology.