Book 1, Question 42
Why Do Butterfly Wings Have Colors? Paint vs. Tiny Mirrors!
Butterfly wings get color from pigments and from tiny overlapping scales whose structure bounces light to make shimmering colors.
Butterfly colors come from two tricks. Some color is pigment, which is like nature's paint that soaks into things. The brightest blues and greens often come from tiny overlapping scales, like roof shingles, that bounce light like tiny mirrors. The page says Morpho blue is mostly structure, not pigment, because the scales are shaped to reflect blue light. Look, but do not stroke the wings, since they are delicate, and try tilting a soap bubble or a DVD in the light to see colors shimmer.
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Quick answers
What are butterfly scales made of?
Chitin. The scales overlap like tiles on a roof.
What is iridescence?
Shimmery, rainbow-like color that comes from the wing's structure, not from pigment.
Sources: Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic
From the book
Page from A Million Whys Book 1
More fun facts
- Butterfly wings are covered with thousands of tiny scales.
- The scales overlap like tiles on a roof.
- The scales are made of a material called chitin.
- Shimmery, rainbow-like colors are called iridescence. On butterfly wings they come from the wing's structure, not from pigment.
- Physicists call these color-making structures photonic crystals. Opals and many other insect wings use the same kind of trick.
- Scientists at MIT found a way to peek inside a chrysalis and watch wing scales form in real time.
- Scientists have made 3-D images of the tiny crystals inside wing scales that make butterfly colors so bright.
Sources: Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic
Questions kids ask
What are butterfly wings covered with?
Thousands of tiny scales made of chitin, overlapping like roof tiles.
Why do some butterflies shimmer?
Tiny structures in their scales bend and reflect light. Scientists call them photonic crystals.