Audit expert: Li Weiyang
Well-known popular science writer
With its colorful colors and dancing postures, butterflies have been the darlings of the literati and inkers since ancient times. Butterflies belong to the order Lepidoptera, and there are about eighteen thousand species of Lepidoptera insects that can be taxonomically called "butterflies".
Various beautiful butterflies (butterflies) source丨 Wikipedia
The "lepidoptera", as the name suggests, is that there are countless tiny scales on the wings. The colorful butterfly wings we see and the patterns on them are arranged from these tiny scales.
Enlarged butterfly wings, you can see the fine scales above source丨 Wikipedia
In people's minds, butterflies have beautiful wings. However, in Central and South America, there are some different butterflies, they fade their gorgeous coats, transparent wings and their surroundings are integrated, and they look like they are "invisible" from a distance.
Among the many butterflies with transparent wings, there is one butterfly that can be said to be very typical, it is the glass wing butterfly.
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The glass-winged butterfly (Greta morgane oto or Greta oto), officially known as the broad-veined black-veined butterfly in the Chinese, belongs to the butterfly family under the butterfly family, ithomiini, the genus Of the black-veined butterfly. It is named after the transparent wings like glass. Interestingly, despite being called "glass-winged butterflies", their wing edges are not transparent and are generally dark brown, red or orange, and black.
Glass Wing Butterfly Source 丨 Network
The glass-winged butterfly is small in size, with a wingspan of about 5.6 to 6.1 cm, and lives mainly in Mexico, Panama and Colombia in Central and South America. Glass-winged butterflies migrate, and they migrate far, so they can sometimes be seen further north of Florida.
Our common butterfly wings have many small scales and scales attached to them, and many species in the butterfly family have areas on the wings that are not covered by scales, and most of the veins between the wings are also colorless membrane tissue.
Transparent-winged glass-winged butterfly Source丨 Wikipedia
The large transparent wings combined with the small and slender body make the glass-winged butterfly fly in the dense forest like a phantom, which is difficult to be detected by other creatures. It is by relying on this natural disguise that the enemy cannot see where they are, and nakedly escapes the eyes of the enemy in broad daylight.
The larvae of the glass-winged butterfly will choose to feed on poisonous solanaceae sources丨 Wikipedia
In fact, when the larvae of the glass-winged butterfly feather into a butterfly, the transparent part of the wing has a small number of scales. But then, as they dried, the scales slowly fell off and eventually became transparent wings that were only a thin layer, like glass.
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In fact, when people see glass-winged butterflies, they are very curious about why their wings are so special, so there are many imaginative imaginations, such as the beautiful legend of transparent winged butterflies.
Legend has it that a long time ago, in a valley lived a group of butterflies with transparent wings that could understand each other's hearts. Later, a magician passed by, told them that they did not know how to hide their hearts, and gave the butterflies a potion, after which the wings of the butterflies were no longer completely transparent.
Adults of the glass-winged butterfly feed on nectar of lantanas from 丨 Wikipedia
Of course, legends are just legends, and for years, scientists have been trying to unlock the secrets of the transparent wings of glass-winged butterflies, and Nipam Patel, an evolutionary and developmental biologist at the Marine Biology Laboratory of the University of Chicago in the United States, is one of them.
In a study published this year in the Journal of Experimental Biology, Nipam Patel and his research team discovered the secret of transparent wings by rearing glass-winged butterflies and tracking the full development of their wings.
Nipam Patel's research team found that not only do glass-winged butterfly wings have fewer scales, but they also convert the scales into bristles, making it easier for light to penetrate the wings.
The scales of the transparent part (white part) on the wings of the glass-winged butterfly are softer, and the scales in other areas (dark parts) are wider Source| Global Science
Further observation through the microscope reveals that there are many small protrusions between these bristles, which are called "nanoleadels", which also have a layer of wax attached to them. These nanosyles and waxes are also good helpers to make the wings of the glass-winged butterfly "invisible".
The nanospole roughs the surface of the wing, allows the light to be reflected in all directions, forming diffuse reflection, and reducing the reflection; and the wax on the nanostelast, because the density is greater than the air, can slow down the speed of light penetrating the wings, and the decrease in speed reduces the glare, and also reduces the reflection to a certain extent. This nano-pillar is like a protective film that protects the wings of the glass-winged butterfly, which explains why the wings of the glass-winged butterfly are transparent.
Microscopic structure of glass-winged butterfly wings Source丨 Wikipedia
The transparent wings of the glass-winged butterfly not only protect themselves, but also bring inspiration to human scientific research.
Now, many aircraft use similar special nanostructures on their wings. This structure effectively prevents glare under bright sunlight. When light hits a nanostructured array on a wing, the light is not reflected by the array, but passes directly through it. This is almost identical to the principle of transparent wings of the glass wing butterfly.
Glass-winged butterflies have evolved into "stealth" masters millions of years ago, and if we learn a little more about glass-winged butterflies, we may be able to find inspiration for how to create new nanostructures.
Glass Wing Butterfly Source 丨 Wikipedia
We may wish to use our imagination to boldly imagine whether this special anti-reflective property of the glass wing butterfly can be applied to our daily life, such as the development of special reflective glasses. When we look at the mobile phone under the light, the screen is particularly easy to reflect, if the characteristics of the glass wing butterfly wings that do not completely reflect the light are applied to the screen, what will happen?
Perhaps in the near future, scientists will be able to unlock more secrets about glass-winged butterflies and be able to apply their characteristics to our daily lives.