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Besides providing insulation, dark patterns on wings provided by dark colour scales would allow sunlight to be absorbed and thus probably have a role to play in thermoregulation. Bright and distinctive colour patterns in butterflies which are distasteful to predators help communicate their aposematism (toxicity or inedibility) thus preventing a ...
The wings, head parts of thorax, and abdomen of Lepidoptera are covered with minute scales, from which feature the order Lepidoptera derives its names, the word lepidos in Ancient Greek meaning "scale". Most scales are lamellar (blade like) and attached with a pedicel, while other forms may be hair like or specialised as secondary sexual ...
Moths have larger scales on their wings which makes them look more dense and fluffy. Butterflies on the other hand possess fine scales. This difference is possibly due to the need for moths to conserve heat during the cooler nights, or to confound echolocation by bats, whereas butterflies are able to absorb sunlight .
The brilliant blue color in the butterfly's wings is caused by the diffraction of the light from millions of tiny scales on its wings. It uses this to frighten away predators, by flashing its wings rapidly. The wingspan of the blue morpho butterfly ranges from 7.5–20 cm (3.0–7.9 in).
Thus, the colors appear to vary with viewing angle, but they are surprisingly uniform, perhaps due to the tetrahedral (diamond-like) structural arrangement of the scales or diffraction from overlying cell layers. The wide-angle blue reflection property can be explained by exploring the nanostructures in the scales of the morpho butterfly wings. [9]
Lepidoptera (/ ˌ l ɛ p ɪ ˈ d ɒ p t ər ə / LEP-ih-DOP-tər-ə) or lepidopterans is an order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths.About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organisms, [1] [2] making it the second largest insect order (behind Coleoptera) with 126 families [3] and 46 superfamilies ...
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The Morpho Menelaus' characteristic iridescent wings has a unique wing structure. The ground scales are covered by a set of longitudinal ridges, and within the ridges are layers of lamella. [12] Because the size of the microstructure is the same as the wavelength of light, the layers in the wings react strongly with visible light. [2]