Measuring and Modelling Structural Colours of <i>Euphaedra neophron</i> (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) Finely Tuned by Wing Scale Lower Lamina in Various Subspecies
Zsolt Bálint,
Gergely Katona,
Szabolcs Sáfián,
Steve Collins,
Gábor Piszter,
Krisztián Kertész,
László Péter Biró
Affiliations
Zsolt Bálint
Hungarian Natural History Museum, Department of Zoology, Baross utca 13, 1088 Budapest, Hungary
Gergely Katona
Hungarian Natural History Museum, Department of Zoology, Baross utca 13, 1088 Budapest, Hungary
Szabolcs Sáfián
Hungarian Natural History Museum, Department of Zoology, Baross utca 13, 1088 Budapest, Hungary
Steve Collins
African Butterfly Research Institute, P.O. Box 14308, Nairobi 00800, Kenya
Gábor Piszter
Institute of Technical Physics and Materials Science, Centre for Energy Research, 29-33 Konkoly Thege Miklós St., 1121 Budapest, Hungary
Krisztián Kertész
Institute of Technical Physics and Materials Science, Centre for Energy Research, 29-33 Konkoly Thege Miklós St., 1121 Budapest, Hungary
László Péter Biró
Institute of Technical Physics and Materials Science, Centre for Energy Research, 29-33 Konkoly Thege Miklós St., 1121 Budapest, Hungary
The nymphalid butterfly Euphaedra neophron (Hopffer, 1855) is the only structurally coloured species representing the genus along the Indian Ocean coast in East Africa and Southern Africa, with a distribution from southern Somalia to the Kwa-Zulu-Natal region of South Africa. The range of E. neophron is subdivided to several, geographically distinct populations, currently recognised as subspecies by taxonomists on the basis of violet, blue, and green-coloured morphs. We investigated the optical mechanism of all these morphs by various materials science techniques. We found that the structural colour is generated by the lower lamina of the cover scales and the different colours are tuned according to their thickness, which was also proved by modelling. The colour tuning of the different subspecies does not reflect any clinal pattern, be it geographical or altitudinal.
