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Butterfly wings. Beautiful mosaic patterns made up of tiny scales, absorbing, reflecting or refracting light waves to create a range of colors from a rich velvety black to iridescent blues, bright yellows and reds to dusky earth-tones. We rarely get to see the scales, aside from the “dust” they may leave upon flight, or when we touch their wings. If you get a chance, take a hand lens or a microscope or a macro-lens to observe a butterfly wing. It is a new experience. They truly live up to their scientific name Lepidoptera (scale wings). But there is another element to their wings - the veins. Butterflies have relatively large wings for their thickness, and it is the veins that provide structural stability, as well as a transit corridor for nutrients and oxygen. Cross-veins add strategic structural support, allowing a balance between stability and flexibility. The image above is part of a wing of an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Papilio glaucus, which shows the veins and scales. An amazing piece of art and engineering.
The two papers below discuss some aspects of insect wing structure from an engineering perspective:
Flexural Stiffness in Insect Wings from The Journal of Experimental Biology
Materials, Structure, and Dynamics of Insect Wings as Bioinspiration for MAVs From the Encyclopedia of Aerospace Engineering
The two papers below discuss some aspects of insect wing structure from an engineering perspective:
Flexural Stiffness in Insect Wings from The Journal of Experimental Biology
Materials, Structure, and Dynamics of Insect Wings as Bioinspiration for MAVs From the Encyclopedia of Aerospace Engineering