How is butterfly wing color created and how does it evolve? When a curious butterfly breeder managed to make the wings of the normally brown buckeye butterfly a brilliant blue — and suceeded — scientists took notice. The scientists “found that buckeyes and other Junonia species can create a rainbow of structural colors simply by tuning the thickness of the wing scale’s bottom layer.” More from Phys.org:
“Structural color, often used in butterflies and other animals to create blue and green, is created by microscopic structures interacting with light to intensify some colors and diminish others. In contrast, pigmentary coloration is created by the absorption of specific colors (wavelengths) of light and is commonly employed to create colors such as yellow, orange, and brown.”
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