The window at my aunt’s house 🦋💕
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Green hairstreak butterfly (Callophrys rubi)
Photo by Robert Thompson
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Colorful Butterflies design is perfect for insects lover enhance the beauty for your laptop, mug, phone case and sticker.
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A Colorful Bush and a Beautiful Butterfly Make Spring Wonderful
A Colorful Bush and a Beautiful Butterfly Make Spring Wonderful shows readers a gorgeous zebra swallowtail butterfly as it feeds on a clump of butterfly weed. To the author/artist these species and their colors are a perfect representation of spring.
Spring Complexion
I suspect that anyone who loves nature loves springtime. Early spring is a time for renewal and rebirth, while later in the spring the theme seems to be amazing color. Once wildflowers begin to bloom butterflies, colorful moths, and insects start to re-emerge and out come the birds and other wildlife. Add to all of that warming temperature and gentle breezes and all in all, you…
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Beautiful Butterflies and Colorful Flowers are Here for Summer
Beautiful Butterflies and Colorful Flowers are Here for Summer shows readers a beautiful male fiery skipper feeding from an Indian blanket flower. It also explains why the author/artist was so taken by the colors at the scene.
Saffron and Fuchsia
The first day of summer is just around the corner and central Florida is ready. Since we’re starting to get some rain, the wildflowers have been popping up all over and the pollinators are out in force. On Friday I spotted these gorgeous red and yellow Indian blanket (Gaillardia pulchella) flowers. When I stopped to get some photos I also found a whole host of fiery skippers…
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Fun fact: common buckeye butterflies (Junonia coenia) can be selectively bred to be blue fairly easily!
It turns out the only thing needed to go from brown to blue is a slightly thicker lamina, which is a flat layer at the bottom of the wing scale:
The lamina's iridescence is caused by the same phenomena as soap bubbles: thin-film interference. When light hits the transparent film of the lamina, it reflects off both the top and bottom of the layer.
Depending on the thickness and refractive properties of the material, the two reflected light waves can be in sync (image below) or cancel each other out. At the perfect thickness, the blue waves of light are enhanced and the butterfly becomes iridescent!
Because the difference in thickness needed to cause iridescence is so slight, it took less than a year to shift a population from just a few blue scales to full-on fabulous blue.
Photos & figures by Rachel Thayer, Nipam Patel, and Edith Smith.
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