Complex three-dimensional biophotonic nanostructures produce the vivid structural colors of many butterfly wing scales, but their exact nanoscale organization is uncertain. We used small angle X-ray ...scattering (SAXS) on single scales to characterize the 3D photonic nanostructures of five butterfly species from two families (Papilionidae, Lycaenidae). We identify these chitin and air nanostructures as single network gyroid (I4 sub(1)32) photonic crystals. We describe their optical function from SAXS data and photonic band-gap modeling. Butterflies apparently grow these gyroid nanostructures by exploiting the self-organizing physical dynamics of biological lipid-bilayer membranes. These butterfly photonic nanostructures initially develop within scale cells as a core-shell double gyroid (Ia3d), as seen in block-copolymer systems, with a pentacontinuous volume comprised of extracellular space, cell plasma membrane, cellular cytoplasm, smooth endoplasmic reticulum (SER) membrane, and intra-SER lumen. This double gyroid nanostructure is subsequently transformed into a single gyroid network through the deposition of chitin in the extracellular space and the degeneration of the rest of the cell. The butterflies develop the thermodynamically favored double gyroid precursors as a route to the optically more efficient single gyroid nanostructures. Current approaches to photonic crystal engineering also aim to produce single gyroid motifs. The biologically derived photonic nanostructures characterized here may offer a convenient template for producing optical devices based on biomimicry or direct dielectric infiltration.
The present paper discusses the distributional patterns of Colombian riodinines; it is considered that most species can be ascribed to five distinct faunistic regions: the east slope of the Andes, ...the upper and lower Rio Magdalena Valley, the upper Rio Cauca Valley and the Choco (Colombian Pacific Coast). Data gathered on 297 taxa have allowed a comparison among the five faunistic regions. It is considered that the present major distributional patterns of riodinines in Colombia have been shaped by geological events during most of the Cenozoic, and the great climatic changes of the Pleistocene.
Variation in Acrodipsas cuprea (Sands, 1965) and A. aurata Sands, 1997, both part of the cuprea species-complex, is reviewed. A new subspecies, A. cuprea variabilis subsp. n., from northern New South ...Wales and southeastern Queensland, is described and compared with nominotypical A. cuprea cuprea found from subcoastal New South Wales to Victoria. Acrodipsas violacea sp. n., a closely related species from southern inland Queensland, is described, figured and assigned to the myrmecophila species-group on the basis of morphology of the femora of both sexes.
A first record of Satyrium nikiforovi Weidenhoffer, 2004, is made for the Rangontau Ridge south of Dushanbe in Tajikistan. The species was previously known only from its type locality in Uzbekistan; ...the current record represents the second finding of this taxon and extends its
known range.
The paper deals with the butterfly diversity of Guwahati, Assam, India which was the result of a survey conducted from April 2016 to July 2020. During the study period we recorded 249 species of ...butterflies belonging to six families namely Papilionidae (24 species), Pieridae (23 species), Lycaenidae (57 species), Riodinidae (two species), Nymphalidae (97 species), and Hesperiidae (46 species). Twenty-eight species were recorded from commercial areas, 74 species from residential areas, and 248 species from forested areas. Nineteen species were found to be very common, 39 species common, 50 species fairly common, 53 species uncommon, 57 species rare, and 31 species very rare. Twenty-four species and nine subspecies including Discophora sondiaca, Athyma selenophora, and Athyma kanwa phorkys are legally protected under different schedules as per the Indian Wildlife Protection Act (1972).
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