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Diverse nanostructures underlie thin ultra-black scales in butterflies.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Davis, AL; Nijhout, HF; Johnsen, S
Published in: Nature communications
March 2020

Recently, it has been shown that animals such as jumping spiders, birds, and butterflies have evolved ultra-black coloration comparable to the blackest synthetic materials. Of these, certain papilionid butterflies have reflectances approaching 0.2%, resulting from a polydisperse honeycomb structure. It is unknown if other ultra-black butterflies use this mechanism. Here, we examine a phylogenetically diverse set of butterflies and demonstrate that other butterflies employ simpler nanostructures that achieve ultra-black coloration in scales thinner than synthetic alternatives. Using scanning electron microscopy, we find considerable interspecific variation in the geometry of the holes in the structures, and verify with finite-difference time-domain modeling that expanded trabeculae and ridges, found across ultra-black butterflies, reduce reflectance up to 16-fold. Our results demonstrate that butterflies produce ultra-black by creating a sparse material with high surface area to increase absorption and minimize surface reflection. We hypothesize that butterflies use ultra-black to increase the contrast of color signals.

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Published In

Nature communications

DOI

EISSN

2041-1723

ISSN

2041-1723

Publication Date

March 2020

Volume

11

Issue

1

Start / End Page

1294

Related Subject Headings

  • Wings, Animal
  • Refractometry
  • Pigmentation
  • Nanostructures
  • Computer Simulation
  • Butterflies
  • Animals
  • Animal Scales
 

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Davis, A. L., Nijhout, H. F., & Johnsen, S. (2020). Diverse nanostructures underlie thin ultra-black scales in butterflies. Nature Communications, 11(1), 1294. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15033-1
Davis, Alexander L., H Frederik Nijhout, and Sönke Johnsen. “Diverse nanostructures underlie thin ultra-black scales in butterflies.Nature Communications 11, no. 1 (March 2020): 1294. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15033-1.
Davis AL, Nijhout HF, Johnsen S. Diverse nanostructures underlie thin ultra-black scales in butterflies. Nature communications. 2020 Mar;11(1):1294.
Davis, Alexander L., et al. “Diverse nanostructures underlie thin ultra-black scales in butterflies.Nature Communications, vol. 11, no. 1, Mar. 2020, p. 1294. Epmc, doi:10.1038/s41467-020-15033-1.
Davis AL, Nijhout HF, Johnsen S. Diverse nanostructures underlie thin ultra-black scales in butterflies. Nature communications. 2020 Mar;11(1):1294.

Published In

Nature communications

DOI

EISSN

2041-1723

ISSN

2041-1723

Publication Date

March 2020

Volume

11

Issue

1

Start / End Page

1294

Related Subject Headings

  • Wings, Animal
  • Refractometry
  • Pigmentation
  • Nanostructures
  • Computer Simulation
  • Butterflies
  • Animals
  • Animal Scales