Wing scales diffract and scatter light: Morpho butterflies

1 of 2 Morpho wing scales / Sea Moon / License

Wings of Morpho butterflies create color by diffracting and scattering light.

Biomimicry Taxonomy

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[Collapse all sections] Summary

Many butterfly species use light-interacting structures on their wing scales to produce color in a way that suggests a novel model for producing environmentally-benign coloration with unique and valuable properties. The cuticle on the scales of these butterfly species’ wings are composed of nano-sized, transparent, chitin-and-air layered structures that, rather than statically absorb and reflect certain light wavelengths as pigments and dyes do, selectively cancel out certain colors through wavelength interference while reflecting others, depending on the exact structure and interspatial distance between diffracting layers. This system of producing color allows for the dynamic control of light flow and wavelength interaction, which butterflies rely upon for camouflage, thermoregulation, and signaling. Human-made systems of structurally-produced color are now being designed which do not require the toxic heavy-metals or manufacturing methods common to many pigments and dyes (e.g., for iridescent fabrics and cosmetics), and to create high-performance electronic color displays by actively varying the interspatial distances of light-interacting layers (e.g., for cell phones), which can change colors rapidly, remain vibrant under low-light conditions, and require less energy than other electronic display methods.

Excerpt

"Brilliant iridescent colouring in male butterflies enables long-range conspecific communication and it has long been accepted that microstructures, rather than pigments, are responsible for this coloration. Few studies, however, explicitly relate the intra-scale microstructures to overall butterfly visibility, both in terms of reflected and transmitted intensities and viewing angles.

"Using a focused-laser technique, we investigated the absolute reflectivity and transmissivity associated with the single-scale microstructures of two species of Morpho butterfly and the mechanisms behind their remarkable wide-angle visibility. Measurements indicate that certain Morpho microstructures reflect up to 75% of the incident blue light over an angle range of greater than 100 degree in one plane and 15 degree in the other.

"We show that incorporation of a second layer of more transparent scales, above a layer of highly iridescent scales, leads to very strong diffraction, and we suggest this effect acts to increase further the angle range over which incident light is reflected.

"Measurements using index-matching techniques yield the complex refractive index of the cuticle material comprising the single-scale microstructure to be n=(1.56 plus or minus 0.01) + (0.06 plus or minus 0.01)i. This figure is required for theoretical modelling of such microstructure systems." (Vukusic et al. 1999:1403)

About the inspiring organism

Blue Morpho
Morpho rhetenor Cramer 1775

IUCN Red List Status: Unknown
Habitat(s): Forest

Some organism data provided by: LepIndex: The Global Lepidoptera Names Index
Organism/taxonomy data provided by:
Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2008 Annual Checklist

Bioinspired products and application ideas

Application Ideas: Paints for cars, buildings, or other industrial applications; fabrics; electronic display screens; cosmetics.

Industrial Sector(s) interested in this strategy: Textiles, buildings, manufacturing, transportation, health and beauty

Morphotex structural colored fibers - Structural colored fibers

mirasol™ display technology - electronic display screen

ChromaFlair Color-Shifting Paints - Color-shifing paint

Experts

Natural Photonics Group
Dr. Peter Vukusic, Roy Sambles
University of Exeter

References

Vukusic, P. 1999. Quantified interference and diffraction in single Morpho butterfly scales. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 266(1427): 1403-1403.

Yoshioka, S.; Kinoshita, S. 2004. Wavelength-selective and anisotropic light-diffusing scale on the wing of the Morpho butterfly. Proceedings: Biological Sciences. 271(1539): 581-587.

Prum, R. O.; Quinn, T.; Torres, R. H. 2006. Anatomically diverse butterfly scales all produce structural colours by coherent scattering. Journal of Experimental Biology. 209(4): 748-765.

Vukusic, P. 2006. Structural colour in Lepidoptera. Current Biology. 16(16): R621-R623.

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Curator of this page

ille
Occupation: College/University Educator
Location: Bangi, Malaysia

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