There is a species of butterfly that lives in the rainforest of South America, with its large wings that allow them to quickly traverse through the jungle. Their wings shine with a metallic luster of blue, green or purple, and this butterfly is famous for its glittering butterfly.
Glitter butterflies, also known as "glitter butterflies", "Moorish floating butterflies", etc., belong to the lepidoptera family. It is mainly distributed in South America, with a few in Mexico and southern North America.
Butterflies are large butterflies with about 80 species, with the smallest butterfly wingspan of 75 mm and the largest more than 200 mm. All butterflies, whether glittering, non-glittering, blue, greenish-white, brown, the reverse of their wings have more or less rows of eye-like markings. Like other Lepidoptera, the butterfly is a completely metamorphosed insect, and its life history includes four stages: egg, larvae, pupae, and adult. Although the adult shapes of the butterfly are very different, their eggs, larvae, and pupae share many similarities.
The glitter butterfly is famous for its wonderful blue color. In fact, its wings are not really blue, because their color is not derived from pigment, but from an optical effect.
The wings of the butterfly are covered with millions of keratin scales, and the arrangement of some of the transparent keratin scales allows it to adjust the light at will and enhance the reflection. Therefore, the blue wings of the butterfly are arranged in such a way that they reflect blue light in the visible spectrum, and only blue light.
In the sunlight, the wings of the butterfly will appear blue and bright; when the light is lost, the wings of the butterfly will not only lose its brilliant color, but also show a dark brown, that is, the color of its own pigment.
Many people will wonder, doesn't such a brilliant blue pose a danger to the butterfly? Not really. Because when flying, the flickering wings of the butterfly will dazzle the birds that want to prey on it, thus playing a role in protecting themselves. In addition, the butterfly can also use the blue color on its body to find a mate.
At present, researchers have opened up the invention of a new generation of flat panel displays through the theory that the color of the butterfly comes from light waves obtained by themselves, and these screens have been tried on some mobile phones. The advantage of this invention is that it avoids the visibility problems caused by reflections. No matter which direction the electronic device is facing, the screen will always return the same image to its user, because the image itself is made by light waves.
The application of the butterfly has even penetrated into people's daily lives. By mimicking the scales of butterflies, some fabric producers have succeeded in producing colorful fabrics that do not require dyeing and coating, but only by changing the thickness and structure of the fibers. This coloring method may also be able to be applied to metals. In the long run, the "technology" of the butterfly may be more economical, especially to reduce the large amount of pollution caused by today's dyeing methods.
This article is from: Xinhua Net