spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
 QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

First published online January 31, 2006
Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 748-765 (2006)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2006
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02051
This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Prum, R. O.
Right arrow Articles by Torres, R. H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Prum, R. O.
Right arrow Articles by Torres, R. H.

Anatomically diverse butterfly scales all produce structural colours by coherent scattering

Richard O. Prum1,*, Tim Quinn2 and Rodolfo H. Torres3

1 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, PO Box 208105, New Haven, Connecticut 06250, USA
2 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
3 Department of Mathematics, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA

* Author for correspondence (e-mail: richard.prum{at}yale.edu)

Accepted 20 December 2005

The structural colours of butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) have been attributed to a diversity of physical mechanisms, including multilayer interference, diffraction, Bragg scattering, Tyndall scattering and Rayleigh scattering. We used fibre optic spectrophotometry, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and 2D Fourier analysis to investigate the physical mechanisms of structural colour production in twelve lepidopteran species from four families, representing all of the previously proposed anatomical and optical classes of butterfly nanostructure. The 2D Fourier analyses of TEMs of colour producing butterfly scales document that all species are appropriately nanostructured to produce visible colours by coherent scattering, i.e. differential interference and reinforcement of scattered, visible wavelengths. Previously hypothesized to produce a blue colour by incoherent, Tyndall scattering, the scales of Papilio zalmoxis are not appropriately nanostructured for incoherent scattering. Rather, available data indicate that the blue of P. zalmoxis is a fluorescent pigmentary colour. Despite their nanoscale anatomical diversity, all structurally coloured butterfly scales share a single fundamental physical color production mechanism - coherent scattering. Recognition of this commonality provides a new perspective on how the nanostructure and optical properties of structurally coloured butterfly scales evolved and diversified among and within lepidopteran clades.

Key words: coherent scattering, structural colours, Fourier analysis, photonics, Lepidoptera, Callophrys, Celastrina, Morpho, Mitoura, Papilio, Parides, Parrhasius, Troides, Urania







© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2006