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Scales play an important part in the natural history of Lepidoptera. Scales enable the development of vivid or indistinct patterns which help the organism protect itself by camouflage, mimicry, and warning. Besides providing insulation, dark patterns on wings allow sunlight to be absorbed and are probably involved in thermoregulation.
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 colourful patterns on many butterfly wings tell potential predators that they are toxic. Hence, the genetic basis of wing pattern formation can illuminate both the evolution of butterflies as well as their developmental biology. The colour of butterfly wings is derived from tiny structures called scales, each of which have their own pigments.
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 ...
Teinopalpus imperialis male. Upperside black, densely irrorated with green scales. Forewing: an outwardly oblique, slightly concave subbasal band and a narrow terminal edging jet-black due to the ground colour there being devoid of the green scaling; beyond the subbasal band the irroration of scales a much brighter green, especially along the outer edge of the subbasal band itself; but along ...
The scales are highly curved, which creates inter-scale reflection. This mechanism is unusual among Lepidoptera. The proximal part of each scale is almost flat; the scale then gradually curves up and then steeply bends down at the distal end, covering the proximal part of the next row of scales.
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Transition of scales color on a butterfly wing (30x magnification). The two pairs of wings are found on the middle and third segment, or mesothorax and metathorax respectively. In the more recent genera, the wings of the second segment are much more pronounced, however some more primitive forms have similarly sized wings of both segments.