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Glenn Conant

Structural Coloration In Butterflies

Updated: Dec 11, 2023




Amazingly, butterflies do not have blue pigmentation.

Their blue coloration is what is called "Structural Color."

It is derived from sunlight being refracted by the thousands

of microscopic scales on their wings.

When these seemingly blue butterflies fly out of sunlight,

either into a shaded area, or under a plant leaf, they will instantly

revert back to their base dorsal wing color.

In this way, they will become invisible to the predator that had been

stalking them.



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