#8: Butterfly Wings

Litinsects #8: Butterfly Wings

Have you ever heard that you shouldn’t touch a butterfly’s wings or it will die? Well why is that...?

Who remembers what I explained yesterday about Latin names? Butterflies and moths belong to the group LEPIDOPTERA, from the Greek words lepis for scale and pteron for wing. You probably guessed it already: butterfly wings are covered in SCALES! (Anyone starting to see a pattern with the names here? 😉)

Butterfly scales are actually modified, flattened SETAE (aka hairs) that either partially or entirely cover the wings of most species. Some look like roof tiles, like on this here monarch, while some look more thread-like

Scales protect and insulate the insect, but underneath the wing is actually transparent! Some species, like the GLASSWING BUTTERFLY, lack scales and have totally amazing see-through wings!

Scales are responsible for the coloration of butterfly wings in one of two ways. First of all, scales contain PIGMENTS, which are responsible for a lot of the wing colors we see. But some other colors may be caused by STRUCTURAL COLORATION, in which microscopic structures cause optical effects due to light refraction. Structural coloration is a super cool phenomenon that is responsible for many of the iridescent blues and greens we see in nature, like in Morpho butterflies 🦋, peacock feathers 🦚 and some beetles

So why might touching a butterfly’s wings kill it? Well handling a butterfly can cause a lot of the scales to rub off. Have you ever touched one and seen that dust on your finger afterwards? Yup, those are wing scales. So if enough scales get rubbed off, it could impact the individual’s ability to absorb heat, which could eventually lead to its death...

P.S. These 3 pics are some of my favorite microscope photos that I’ve taken so far! They are taken at 10x, 20x and 40x magnification and I absolutely LOVE how perfectly you can see the scales here 🤓

Comments

#4: Simple Eyes

Litinsects #4: Simple Eyes Yesterday I talked about compound eyes, the multi-faceted structures that most insects use to see the world 👀 But insects actually have another visual system as well, composed of simple eyes or OCELLI. Unlike compound eyes, ocelli are composed of only one structure which makes them comparatively “simple” although they are still very important. These are light-detecting organs consisting of a single lens with sensory cells. They can detect movement but don’t form complex images. “Ocellus” comes from the Latin word oculus, meaning eye. So these structures are literally “little eyes” Ocelli are located on the insect’s head, usually between or adjacent to the compound eyes. They are usually dome-shaped, somewhat shiny structures In most flying insects (such as flies, dragonflies, bees, etc.) there tend to be three ocelli in a triangle arrangement (see photo). Some terrestrial insects (like cockroaches) have only two ocelli ...

#13: Insect Legs

Litinsects #13: Insect Legs Insect legs can be as diverse as the animals themselves. Some are long and slender like a crane fly’s, some are short and hefty like a mole cricket’s. But what all insects share is the number and layout of those legs. Hexapods have 6 LEGS, a pair each of fore, mid, and hind legs that are made up of the same basic units. Starting closest to the body, they are: (1) the coxa, which attaches the leg to the thorax (2) the trochanter (3) the femur, which is oft en the thickest segment (4) the tibia, often covered in tiny hairs (5) the tarsus, which contains 5 “pseudo-segments” (6) the pretarsal claws, of which most insects have 2 on each leg The basic units of the leg always occur in this order but may be reduced or highly modified in some species to fit certain tasks such as running, digging, swimming, grasping, or jumping. This photo sums it up perfectly: from < https://wiki.bugwood.org/File:Insect...

#51: Mayflies

Litinsects #51: Mayflies Mayflies are aquatic freshwater insects and belong to one of the most primitive winged insect lineages! First off, what’s in a name? Mayflies’ common name comes from the fact that some species start “hatching” from the water in May. But their scientific name is much more interesting and accurate; this order is named EPHEMEROPTERA from the Greek “ephemera” for “lasting one day / temporary” and “pteron” for “wing”. A more fitting name would be dayfly, considering their adult lifespan... Most live less than 24 hours after emerging, the shortest adult lifespan of any insect! -Mayflies have triangular-shaped wings that are held upright over their bodies when at rest (sort of like a butterfly) and have three long tail-like filaments. These characteristics, both of which make them easily recognizable, are probably traits that were present in the most primitive flying insects -They are HEMIMETABOLOUS insects, meaning they go through incomplete metamorphosis, with multi...

Litinsects

Search This Blog