(This article is selected from the August 2017 issue of "Knowledge is Power", author: Jiang Zhuoheng, original work, reprint please indicate that it is from the Knowledge is Power WeChat public account)
(Let's take a first look at its true appearance, and the wings of the broad-veined black-veined butterfly reflect an oily glow in the sunlight.) If you have seen this kind of butterfly, don't forget to leave a message for them
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In the sweltering heat of August, insects fly butterfly dance, flowers, parks, there are always a variety of butterfly "fairy" flying figure. But you know what? Lepidoptera, the second largest order of insects, contains nearly 200,000 species. Although butterflies make up only about 1/10 of these, they are the most striking taxa, with many maverick species. The glass-winged butterfly we are going to talk about today is one of them.
The wings are as transparent as glass
The Chinese scientific name of the glass-winged butterfly is the broad-veined black-veined butterfly, Latin name Greta oto, which belongs to the butterfly family, mainly distributed between Mexico and Panama in Central and South America. They are small in size , with a wingspan of 5.6 to 6.1 cm , and the forefoot degenerates and clings to the thorax.
Lepidoptera is named after the dense scales on the adult wings , body and appendages , but the biggest feature of the broad-veined black-veined butterfly is that it has almost transparent wings — there is no color on the membrane tissue between the wings, there is no scale cover, and it is as transparent as glass, so it is figuratively called the glass-winged butterfly. Its translucent edges, on the other hand, are opaque and dark brown, sometimes red or orange. Body black.
Glass-winged butterfly larvae give a very different impression from adults. The soft shell surface of their eggs is either very smooth and pearly, some are very rough and have a variety of carved ornaments, and some of them adhere to some of the scales on the surface of the egg. In general, female butterflies lay their eggs on the leaves of plants that the larvae prefer to eat, preparing food for the larvae. The main task of the larvae after hatching is to eat, and the feeding process consumes a large number of plant leaves.
After several molts, the larva matures into a pupa. The larvae of the glass-winged butterfly generally do not spit silk as a cocoon, but instead fix themselves with a few wires in a more hidden place on the back of the leaf of the plant, and then gradually harden into the form of a pupal. It is worth mentioning that after the feathering of this transparent butterfly, there are a small number of scales on the wings, but in the subsequent drying process, the scales gradually fall off, eventually becoming the transparent thin wings of the glass texture we see.
(The wings of the glass-winged butterfly can show a pearl luster)
The mystery of the wings
Why are the wings of the glass wing butterfly unique – transparent as glass?
There is a beautiful folk legend about this issue. Legend has it that a long time ago, there was a beautiful valley inhabited by a group of butterflies with transparent bodies, who could see through each other's hearts, without any suspicion or doubt, and lived a simple and happy life. Later, the arrival of a magician changes this purely beautiful world. The magician tells the butterflies that if they don't know how to hide their minds, they will suffer a big loss. Before leaving, the magician left behind a bottle of magic potion, which he told the butterflies that would help them hide their hearts from harm. So the curious butterflies drank the magic potion and became no longer transparent. Years later, the magician returned to the valley, and he found that there were no more transparent butterflies, and the original simple world no longer existed. He suddenly realized his mistake and tried his best to redeem it, but after exhausting his mana, he could only turn the butterflies into the translucent form they are now.
Of course, the legend is untrue. So, how did the transparent wings of the glass-winged butterfly come about? Some speculate that it was the environment that caused their evolution. Entomologists have found that when the membrane of the transparent part of the wing is feathered, the scale structure on it is completely shed, making some areas transparent. The transparent wings of the glass-winged butterflies have also become a camouflage for them to adapt to the environment.
(The transparent wings of the broad-veined black-veined butterfly are camouflages for adaptation to the environment)
Camouflage of the glass-winged butterfly
During the rainy season in South America, the glass-winged butterfly is feathered in large numbers. They like to fly in the shade of the rainforest and often rest on the ground, with an elegant and slow posture. The dark patterns on its wings and body make it easy to blend in with its surroundings to avoid predators, an act of adaptation to the environment by organisms to survive — camouflage.
The members of the family Cyperaceae, who are closely related to them and distributed in the same region, adopt a completely different strategy - vigilance color. After hatching, their larvae begin to feed on many plants with toxins, and after feathering, these toxins are concentrated in the body, and their adults are generally brightly colored, which is conducive to warning their predators: I am not mouthy.
(The body color and translucent wings of the glass-winged butterfly help it blend perfectly with its environment and not be detected by predators.)
Nature's ingenuity has created thousands of amazing species, the butterfly population is only a small part of many wonderful creatures, and there are many more unknown species waiting for us to explore and discover. After that, we will introduce the "relatives of the glass-winged butterfly", so stay tuned! Which kind of butterfly you like is also welcome to tell us [write a message] To tell us!
Editor: Yao Di