The Evolution Of Structural Color In Butterfly Wing Scales

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

In this project the PIs will study wing colors in butterflies. The brilliant colors found on the wings of butterflies have attracted attention from biologists and physicists alike. Many of these colors are due to light interacting with the nano-structures on the surface of the wing scales. In particular the aim of this project is to focus on a group of closely related species that have remarkably different colors, and have a known evolutionary history. This will allow the PIs to examine the smallest amounts of morphological change in a scale's structure that can produce a change in color. The PIs will combine descriptive and theoretical approaches coupled to experimental methods to fully understand how structural colors are produced in this group of butterflies. They will pursue two main approaches: The first approach will involve a comparison of wing scale color and associated morphology across the butterfly genus Bicyclus. The second approach will target a change in scale color using artificial selection in replicate lines of Bicyclus anynana butterflies, and describe the associated morphological changes in the nano-structure of the scales. The PIs will train graduate and undergraduate students, many of them women, as well as actively participating in a variety of outreach activities that are aimed at the broader public. One of the PIs will participate in established Yale education outreach programs to local high schools and middle schools. The PIs will also produce an interactive web-based animation showing how diverse structural colors evolved in a close group of butterflies, and disseminate the results from their findings broadly.