Insect Jewelry of the Victorian Era.
The wing-cases of gold-enameled weevils hung from necklaces; muslin gowns were embroidered with the iridescent green elytra of jewel beetles.
The wing-cases of gold-enameled weevils hung from necklaces; muslin gowns were embroidered with the iridescent green elytra of jewel beetles.
Some of the most vibrantly colored creatures in the animal kingdom don't owe their amazing colors to pigment. Instead, they cover themselves with microscopic structures that fine tune the way they reflect light.
As a fan of the Marvel cinematic universe who had just helped to discover a bright purple fish in an isolated environment in Africa, Tea knew there was just one name they could give their discovery: Cirrhilabrus wakanda, the Vibranium fairy wrasse.
https://earther.gizmodo.com/newly-discovered-vibranium-fish-named-in-honor-of-wakan-1836306355/amp
Step back in time 110 million years ago, the dark evenings in Korea would be full of spiders with eerie glowing eyes.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2019/02/18/spider-fossil-found-with-eerie-glowing-eyes/
The extravagant splendor of the animal kingdom can’t be explained by natural selection alone — so how did it come to be?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/09/magazine/beauty-evolution-animal.html
To the human eye, many butterflies appear the same, but the butterflies themselves can often identify each other quite easily using ultraviolet markings. The ultraviolet patches on some butterflies are directionally iridescent, so that they appear to flicker in flight. This flickering is thought to have an important role in butterfly behavior and communication.
https://tucson.com/saddlebag/butterfly-vision/article_17df38a0-dee4-11e8-8ceb-07b913cdb028.html
The cochineal is an insect from Dactylopius coccus family, from these insects natural food color dyecarminis derived. The female insect is dried and then dye is extracted from dried insect as well as from eggs. This extract is further mixed with calcium or aluminum salts to use as dye. Carmine is primarily used as a colorant in foodand in lipsticks.
Researchers from Yale-NUS College and the University of Fribourg in Switzerland have discovered a novel colour-generation mechanism in nature, which if harnessed, has the potential to create cosmetics and paints with purer and more vivid hues, screen displays that project the same true image when viewed from any angle, and even reduce the signal loss in optical fibres.
https://phys.org/news/2018-09-colour-generation-mechanism-rainbow-weevil.html
Researchers from Yale-NUS College and the University of Fribourg have discovered a color-generation mechanism in nature, which if harnessed, could potentially be used to create screen displays that project the same image when viewed from any angle, and even to reduce the signal loss in optical fibers.
https://www.photonics.com/Articles/Tunable_Color-Generating_Mechanism_in_Nature/a63906
We have multiple species of tiger beetles in Texas, including Megacephala carolina, which is a beautiful iridescent green and maroon insect. While some tiger beetles are dull black or brown, there are others like M. carolina that have reflective, metallic bodies in a whole spectrum of colors. In the tropics especially, species are electric blue, candy cane red and white, velvety green flecked with gold and many other crazy combinations.