Coloration mechanisms and phylogeny of <i>Morpho</i> butterflies

Giraldo, Marco A.; Yoshioka, Shinya; Liu, Chunzi; Stavenga, Doekele G.

doi:10.1242/jeb.148726

Cited by 44 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 23 publications

(38 reference statements)

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“…Previous studies have already measured the angle-dependent reflectance for different geometries, including aligned wing patches, and single scales measured from abwing and adwing sides [9]. The results of the applied, fast, and facile technique are indeed in good agreement with the results of the known abwing and adwing measurements defining top side and bottom side of single wing scales [27,43].…”

Section: Measurement Methodssupporting

confidence: 68%

Orientation-Dependent Reflection of Structurally Coloured Butterflies

et al. 2020

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The photonic structures of butterfly wing scales are widely known to cause angle-dependent colours by light interference with nanostructures present in the wing scales. Here, we quantify the relevance of the horizontal alignment of the butterfly wing scales on the wing. The orientation-dependent reflection was measured at four different azimuth angles, with a step size of 90 • , for ten samples-two of different areas of the same species-of eight butterfly species of three subfamilies at constant angles of illumination and observation. For the observed species with varying optical structures, the wing typically exhibits higher orientation-dependent reflections than the individual scale. We find that the measured anisotropy is caused by the commonly observed grating structures that can be found on all butterfly wing scales, rather than the local photonic structures. Our results show that the technique employed here can be used to quickly evaluate the orientation-dependence of the reflection and hence provide important input for bio-inspired applications, e.g., to identify whether the respective structure is suitable as a template for nano-imprinting techniques.

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Section: Measurement Methodssupporting

confidence: 68%

Orientation-Dependent Reflection of Structurally Coloured Butterflies

et al. 2020

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“…Insect structural colours have only recently been linked to phylogenetic studies [13 -15] and studied through fossil records [16][17][18]. Unfortunately, these investigations are often limited to a specific family [13,15] and/or by the number of species investigated. Understanding the links between different production mechanisms of structural colours would give hints concerning their biological functions [19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thin-film structural coloration from simple fused scales in moths

2018

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One contribution of 11 to a theme issue 'Living light: optics, ecology and design principles of natural photonic structures'.The metallic coloration of insects often originates from diverse nanostructures ranging from simple thin films to complex three-dimensional photonic crystals. In Lepidoptera, structural coloration is widely present and seems to be abundant in extant species. However, even some basal moths exhibit metallic coloration. Here, we have investigated the origin of the vivid metallic colours of the wing scales of the basal moth Micropterix aureatella by spectrophotometry and scanning electron microscopy. The metallic gold-, bronze-and purple-coloured scales share a similar anatomy formed of a fused lower and upper lamina resulting in a single thin film. The optical response of this thin-film scale can be attributed to thin-film interference of the incident light, resulting in the colour variations that correlate with film thickness. Subtle variations in the wing scale thickness result in large visible colour changes that give Micropterix moths their colourful wing patterns. This simple coloration mechanism could provide a hint to understand the evolution of structural coloration in Lepidoptera.

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“…The nanostructuring of the ridges provides a colour reflection similar to a standard multilayer structure, see Section 2.1. Several other features, such as multiple layers of scales, scale tilt angles, and an absorbing background also influence the striking visual appearance of the butterfly (Ingram & Parker, 2008;Kinoshita et al, 2008;Giraldo et al, 2016). Vukusic et al (1999) noticed that the reflection from the Morpho scales extended its blue colour roughly 100° along the longest direction and 15° along the shortest under normal illumination.…”

Section: 11mentioning

confidence: 99%