Moths are brown only to the human eye
Moths have a reputation for being drab gray and brown. But under the right light they show dazzling colors.
Around 3700 butterfly species live in Germany. About 95 percent of them belong to the moths. They have the reputation of being much more monotonously colored than their day-flying relatives. But this first impression is deceptive, as a study by Meng Li of Lund University and her team in the "Journal of the Royal Society Interface" shows: under the right light, owl, peeper and bear butterflies present themselves in iridescent colors.
The research group studied 82 animals from 26 species and photographed their wing scales using a special technique that detects certain wavelengths of light that are invisible to the human eye. This showed that the wings really glow in the infrared range and show a wide variety of colors, while in sunlight they simply appear brown or gray.
The different species also reflected the light in different patterns: each species thus exhibits a specific signal. These patterns helped the team determine the structure of the scales on the moths' wings. The black and white colored forms of the birch moth (Biston betularia), for example, also differ in the structure of their wing scales. Until now, it was assumed that only the melanin content determined the wing color.
Li and Co. now hope that the different infrared signatures could help identify moths. After all, the diversity of moths has not yet been adequately recorded. However, there are reasons why they appear rather monotonous to the human eye. During the day, the moths have to hide from predators: Muffled sounds seem helpful there.
Spectrum of Science
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Originalartikel auf Spektrum.deTitelbild: © Li, M. et al.: Potential for identification of wild night-flying moths by remote infrared microscopy. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 19, 2022, fig. 1 / CC BY 4.0 CC BY (Ausschnitt).
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