Most butterflies sport colorful, eye-catching patterns on their wings. But some species, like the glasswing butterfly, use mostly transparent wings to hide in plain sight.
To figure out how these Central American butterflies go incognito, researchers put the wings of glasswing butterflies (Greta oto) under the microscope. Sparse, spindly scales overlaying a see-through wing membrane with antireflective properties help make these insects so stealthy, researchers report in the May issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology.
Transparency is the ultimate form of camouflage, says James Barnett, a behavioral ecologist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, who wasn’t involved in the work. Transparent animals can instantly blend into any background
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