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 Summary Freely available
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 HighWire
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.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

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


Figure 1
View larger version (87K):

[in a new window]
  		Fig. 1. Photographs of the butterfly species examined. Uraniidae: (A) Urania fulgens; Papilionidae: (B) Papilio ulysses, (C) Papilio zalmoxis, (D) Parides sesostris, (E) Troides brookiana, (F) Troides urvillianus, (G) Troides priamus priamus (phenotypically similar to the green T. p. hecuba examined); Lycaenidae: (H) Celastrina ladon, (I) Callophrys dumetorum, (J) Mitoura gryneus and (K) Parrhasius m-album (very similar and closely related to the P. moctezuma examined); Nymphalidae: (L) Morpho aega. Photos are of upper wing surfaces, except for Callophrys dumetorum (I) and Mitoura gryneus (J), which are underwing surfaces. Not to scale. Specimens courtesy of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History Department of Entomology.

 

Figure 2
View larger version (145K):

[in a new window]
  		Fig. 2. Light microscope photographs of the structurally coloured scales of a sample of the Lepidoptera examined. (A) Urania fulgens blue, (B) Urania fulgens green, (C) Urania fulgens showing the transition between blue and green patches, (D,E) Papilio ulysses, (F) Papilio zalmoxis, (G) Parides sesostris, (H) Troides urvillianus, (I) Troides priamus. All images at 63x, except C (20x) and D (40x). Classification of species examined is given in Table 1.

 

Figure 3
View larger version (119K):

[in a new window]
  		Fig. 3. Light microscope photographs of the structurally coloured scales of a sample of the Lepidoptera examined. (A) Celastrina ladon, (B) Callophrys dumetorum, (C) Mitoura gryneus, (D) Parrhasius moctezuma and (E,F) Morpho aega. All images at 63x, except D (70x) and E (7.5x). Classification of species examined is given in Table 1.

 

Figure 4
View larger version (157K):

[in a new window]
  		Fig. 4 Transmission electron micrographs (TEMs) of sections of the structurally coloured scales of a sample of the lepidopteran species examined. (A,B) Urania fulgens blue, (C) Urania fulgens green, (D,E) Papilio ulysses, (F,G) Papilio zalmoxis, (H-J) Parides sesostris, (K,L) Troides brookiana. Scale bars, 500 nm (A,D, F,G), 200 nm (B,C,E,J,L), 2 µm (H), and 1 µm (K).

 

Figure 5
View larger version (197K):

[in a new window]
  		Fig. 5. Transmission electron micrographs (TEMs) of the structurally coloured scales of a sample of the Lepidoptera examined. (A-B) Troides urvillianus, (C) Troides priamus, (D) Celastrina ladon, (E,F) Callophrys dumetorum, (G) Mitoura gryneus, (H) Parrhasius moctezuma, (I) Morpho aega. Scale bars, 500 nm (A,D,E,H), 200 nm (B,C,F,G), and 2 µm (L).

 

Figure 6
View larger version (54K):

[in a new window]
  		Fig. 6. Two-dimensional Fourier power spectra of transmission electron micrographs of structural colour producing butterfly scale nanostructures (Figs 4, 5). (A) Urania fulgens blue (Fig. 4B), (B) Papilio ulysses (Fig. 4E), (C) Papilio zalmoxis (Fig. 4G), (D) Parides sesostris (Fig. 4J), (E) Troides brookiana (Fig. 4L), (F) Troides urvillianus, (G) Callophrys dumetorum (Fig. 5F), (H) Parrhasius moctezuma (Fig. 5H) and (I) Morpho aega (not illustrated). Colour scale (from blue to red) indicates the relative magnitude of the squared Fourier components, which are dimensionless quantities. Direction from the origin indicates the direction of the 2D component waves in the image, and the distance from the origin indicates the spatial frequency (cycles/nm) of each Fourier component. The Fourier power peaks (red pixels) demonstrate predominant periodicities at intermediate spatial frequencies. The distance from the origin is inversely proportional to the wavelength of the coherently scattered colour.

 

Figure 7
View larger version (24K):

[in a new window]
  		Fig. 7. Radial averages of two-dimensional Fourier power spectra from TEM micrographs of structural colour producing butterfly scale nanostructures (Fig. 6). (A) Urania fulgens blue, (B) Parides sesostris, (C) Troides brookiana, (D) Troides urvillianus, (E) Mitoura gryneus. The shaded zone shows the range of spatial frequencies that are likely to produce coherent scattering of visible light wavelengths.

 

Figure 8
View larger version (40K):

[in a new window]
  		Fig. 8. Measured reflectance spectra (blue) and Fourier predicted reflectance spectra (orange) for the structurally coloured butterfly nanostructures illustrated in Fig. 4. (A) Urania fulgens blue, (B) Urania fulgens green, (C) Papilio ulysses, (D) Papilio zalmoxis, (E) Parides sesostris, (F) Troides brookiana.

 

Figure 9
View larger version (46K):

[in a new window]
  		Fig. 9. Measured reflectance spectra (blue) and Fourier predicted reflectance spectra (orange) for the structurally coloured butterfly nanostructures illustrated in Fig. 5. (A) Troides urvillianus, (B) Troides priamus, (C) Celastrina ladon, (D) Callophrys dumetorum, (E) Mitoura gryneus, (F) Parrhasius moctezuma and (G) Morpho aega.

 

Figure 10
View larger version (73K):

[in a new window]
  		Fig. 10. Fourier analysis of a concavity from a structurally coloured scale of Papilio ulysses. (A) Transmission electron micrograph of a single scale surface concavity from Papilio ulysses. (B) 2D Fourier power spectrum of A showing an arc-shaped distribution of Fourier power peaks (red pixels) above and below the origin that is created by the concave distortion of the fundamentally laminar array of air bubbles in the scale. The result is a broadening of the range angles over which the light back-scattered to the observer will maintain the same peak hue.

 

Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?



© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2006