I’d not heard of glasswing butterflies. They are gorgeous. And of course, there is optics involved!
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/new-images-how-glasswing-butterflies-wings-transparent
buffy said:
I’d not heard of glasswing butterflies. They are gorgeous. And of course, there is optics involved!https://www.sciencenews.org/article/new-images-how-glasswing-butterflies-wings-transparent
I had heard of them, but have never seen one.
> Sparse, spindly scales overlaying a see-through wing membrane with antireflective properties help make these insects so stealthy.
The lack of wing scales and hairlike nature of these wing scales is not a surprise.
What is a surprise to me is the anti-reflective properies, which consists of “an array of tiny wax bumps coats the surface of the membrane, creating a more gradual shift between the optical qualities of the air and wing. That allows more light traveling through the air to pass through the wing rather than reflect off of it, softening the glare.”
Can we use wax bumps to make windows better?
They are stunning.
roughbarked said:
They are stunning.
Scientists See the Invisible:
How Butterflies Make Transparent Wings
> Can we use wax bumps to make windows better?
More thinking, no we can’t.
There are at least two clear-winged butterflies in Australia. I have seen some near Cobbold Gorge northern Qld. I’ve lost my photos, unfortunately. It may have been Acraea andromacha, but my memory isn’t much good these days.
Cressida cressida and Acraea andromacha.
https://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_butters/ClearwingSwallowtail.htm
https://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_nymphs/Glasswing.htm
mollwollfumble said:
buffy said:
I’d not heard of glasswing butterflies. They are gorgeous. And of course, there is optics involved!https://www.sciencenews.org/article/new-images-how-glasswing-butterflies-wings-transparent
I had heard of them, but have never seen one.
> Sparse, spindly scales overlaying a see-through wing membrane with antireflective properties help make these insects so stealthy.
The lack of wing scales and hairlike nature of these wing scales is not a surprise.
What is a surprise to me is the anti-reflective properies, which consists of “an array of tiny wax bumps coats the surface of the membrane, creating a more gradual shift between the optical qualities of the air and wing. That allows more light traveling through the air to pass through the wing rather than reflect off of it, softening the glare.”
Can we use wax bumps to make windows better?
The purpose of the wax bumps isn’t as much to increase clarity as it is
to make them less reflective (less likely to draw the attention of predators)
Ogmog said:
mollwollfumble said:
buffy said:
I’d not heard of glasswing butterflies. They are gorgeous. And of course, there is optics involved!
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/new-images-how-glasswing-butterflies-wings-transparent
I had heard of them, but have never seen one.
> Sparse, spindly scales overlaying a see-through wing membrane with antireflective properties help make these insects so stealthy.
The lack of wing scales and hairlike nature of these wing scales is not a surprise.
What is a surprise to me is the anti-reflective properies, which consists of “an array of tiny wax bumps coats the surface of the membrane, creating a more gradual shift between the optical qualities of the air and wing. That allows more light traveling through the air to pass through the wing rather than reflect off of it, softening the glare.”
Can we use wax bumps to make windows better?
The purpose of the wax bumps isn’t as much to increase clarity as it is
to make them less reflective (less likely to draw the attention of predators)
does decreasing reflective glare increase transmission clarity
SCIENCE said:
Ogmog said:
mollwollfumble said:
I had heard of them, but have never seen one.
> Sparse, spindly scales overlaying a see-through wing membrane with antireflective properties help make these insects so stealthy.
The lack of wing scales and hairlike nature of these wing scales is not a surprise.
What is a surprise to me is the anti-reflective properies, which consists of “an array of tiny wax bumps coats the surface of the membrane, creating a more gradual shift between the optical qualities of the air and wing. That allows more light traveling through the air to pass through the wing rather than reflect off of it, softening the glare.”
Can we use wax bumps to make windows better?
The purpose of the wax bumps isn’t as much to increase clarity as it is
to make them less reflective (less likely to draw the attention of predators)
does decreasing reflective glare increase transmission clarity
It blurs focus at the same time as blurring reflection. So it’s good at increasing transmission clarity over short distances of a few cm but the blurring effect is multiplied as distance increases, rendering it useless at distance scales of order one metre.
