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 The great variety of butterflies is not only conditioned by the variety of
forms and colors. Some beautiful species' wings are iridescent. Where does this
come from?
The scales on these species' wings consist of particularly thin and
transparent lamellas.
White light includes all colors of the spectrum. If such a ray of light meets
the surface of the scale in a particular angle, the single rays of different
wavelengths (different colors) are refracted in different ways by the lamellas.
The same thing happens when a ray of light goes through a prism or through
raindrops, forming a rainbow.
As the light is refracted and reflected several times in the different layers of
the lamellas the colors either intensify or reduce. Due to a particular angle of
incidence only one color appears intensified. If the angle of incidence changes,
a color with a different wavelength of light is preferred. This change causes the
iridescence of the wings.
reflecting and non-reflecting scales the reflecting scales have a finer structure |
the reflecting scales are the ones on the right |
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