Where on the wings of butterflies drawing?

Butterfly. Refer to the detachment of scraper. Wait, but the scales where? Fish – understandable. The reptiles have a similarity of scales in the form of hornbar. But butterfly?! It turns out, and they also have scales. More precisely, tiny flakes that are covered insect wings. And it is they responsible for color.

Scales are arranged. Vanosest. So lay the tile on the roofs of the houses. Scales are pigmented and optical. In the first, as it is clear from the title, contains pigment. Optical scales look like plates with tiny holes. But it is not quite holes, and inverted cone-shaped traps for light. They act like that. Sunlight, falling into cone-shaped traps, partially absorbed by them, and partially reflected. We remember that color is electromagnetic waves of different lengths. Traps – one size, so only the light of a certain wave is reflected. Say, blue or yellow. So surprisingly, the butterfly wing is painted in different colors. Although the calibration is just reflected.

This is scientifically called light interference. Something similar we can observe in soap bubbles. Rainbow divorces are light that partially passes through the finest film of water and soap and partially reflects.

Pigment at the bottom of the scales is also available, and it creates the effect of "substrate", reinforcing the brightness of the color. And since each wing of the butterfly is covered with hundreds of thousands of scales, the effect of interference is repeatedly enhanced.

There is a very simple way to prove that the color in the wings of butterflies is formed not only by the pigment, but also the structure of the scales. Sprinkle the butterfly wing with alcoholic solution – and voila! The wing will become a monophonic, because the alcohol will fill the cone-shaped holes and they will stop serve in light traps. But as soon as the alcohol dry, the cone-shaped traps will be released from the liquid and the magic will return. The light will partially linger in optical scales, and reflected light forms all these bright and juicy colors.

Curious fact: There are butterflies with transparent wings. Glass, or by scientific G Reta OTO uses the properties of its masking wings from predators. The wing of the glass wing consists of microscopic protrusions that have the same refractive index of light. And, as a result, – Not dissipating light – Butterfly wings become transparent.