Flashiest Male

Flashiest Male

Butterflies are known for their colors and beauty so it is no surprise that the winner for the “Flashiest Male” goes to a butterfly. Even among butterflies the morpho butterfly (Morpho species) stands out. Morpho butterflies live in Central and South American rainforests. They win as “flashiest” because the males have vivid with the most iridescent of living structures. They are a beautiful iridescent blue with such beautiful wings to their misfortune they have been the most sought after by butterfly collectors. Their wings have even been used in jewelry.

The butterflies flashes are so striking they can be seen from aircraft flying over the rainforest canopy. So how do they do it?

The colors are not made from pigments but by using reflective structures. The wing scales (which is that “powder” that rubs off their wings) are angled like roof tiles. They are almost transparent. Each scale supports another series of of layered scales which may be then layered with more structures. These scales reflect light upward and outward. “The structures are so precisely arranged that light rays of a particular wavelength are reflected back in the same but parallel direction, enhancing each other and therefore the reflected color.” The result is extreme vivid color. They are possibly the most complicated reflective structures in the world.

So what is with all this color? Surely it is to impress the females, right? Wrong. These vivid flashes of color are to intimidate rival males in the area and to establish territory. Of course all this beauty comes at a price. It is dangerous to be so flashy. You draw attention to yourself and increase your chances of being spotted by creatures you don’t want to notice you, like predators. Females are camouflage brown and do not have to worry about that. The males have found a way to protect themselves somewhat.

When the male morpho butterfly flies, their wing movements up and down alter the angle of light striking the scales making the colors change suddenly from bright blue to brown. That combined with erratic, chaotic flight and brown underwings exposed in the upward stroke gives the illusion of the butterfly appearing and disappearing. When they are at rest, the males close their wings exposing just the brown underside and seem to disappear altogether into the forest.

Source: Extreme Nature by Mark Carwardine