#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

#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...

#22: Caterpillars

Litinsects #22: Caterpillars Since you are freshly familiar with metamorphosis from my last posts, I will today be talking about caterpillars 🐛 and some structures that change drastically in appearance from before to after metamorphosis: legs. Caterpillars are the worm-shaped larval stage of butterflies and moths. They have huge appetites; they mainly feed to grow and gain energy for their transformation into adulthood. In order to do this they need to get around, for which they use le gs because only adult stages have wings. But insects only 3 pairs of legs, right? So where do all these extra legs come from all down the sides of their bodies? Caterpillars have 3 pairs of TRUE LEGS, attached to their thorax, which are jointed and have little claws on the end. These legs are still present after metamorphosis, though they will have changed substantially Additionally, they usually have 2 to 5 pairs of PROLEGS, which are protrusions fr...

WELCOME: Social Distancing Entomology Course

All week I’ve been seeing videos and posts of the creative stuff people have been doing while social distancing, all the while thinking, what could I contribute to all the people sitting at home on social media all day?? Well this morning it hit me. I will do what I do best! And that is... drop some nerd knowledge on you all 🤓 Welcome to my social distancing ENTOMOLOGY COURSE! Every day I will post an insect photo, most of which I’ve taken through my microscope, and explain about the insect group or the feature pictured. My hope is that you might learn something new about insects and maybe, just mayyyyybe, be a bit more fascinated and a bit less grossed out by the most diverse and arguably most successful group of animals to ever live... thanks for reading, stay tuned 🦋 🦟 🦗 🐞 🐜 🐛

Litinsects

Search This Blog