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Tag: butterfly

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    Evaporating Off Butterfly Scales

    This award-winning macro video shows scattered water droplets evaporating off a butterfly‘s wing. At first glance, it’s hard to see any motion outside of the camera’s sweep, but if you focus on one drop at a time, you’ll see them shrinking. For most of their lifetime, these tiny drops are nearly spherical; that’s due to the hydrophobic, water-shedding nature of the wing. But as the drops get smaller and less spherical, you may notice how the drop distorts the scales it adheres to. Wherever the drop touches, the wing scales are pulled up, and, when the drop is gone, the scales settle back down. This is a subtle but neat demonstration of the water’s adhesive power. (Video and image credit: J. McClellan; via Nikon Small World in Motion)

    Water droplets evaporate from the wing of a peacock butterfly.
    Water droplets evaporate from the wing of a peacock butterfly.
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    How Insects Fly in the Rain

    Getting caught in the rain is annoying for us but has the potential to be deadly for smaller creatures like insects. So how do they survive a deluge? First, they don’t resist a raindrop, and second, they have the kinds of surfaces water likes to roll or bounce off. The key to this second ability is micro- and nanoscale roughness. Surfaces like butterfly wings, water strider feet, and leaf surfaces contain lots of tiny gaps where air gets caught. Water’s cohesion — its attraction to itself — is large enough that water drops won’t squeeze into these tiny spaces. Instead, like the ball it resembles, a water drop slides or bounces away. (Video and image credit: Be Smart)

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  • Butterfly Scales

    Butterfly Scales

    Catch a butterfly, and you’ll notice a dust-like residue left behind on your fingers. These are tiny scales from the butterfly’s wing. Under a microscope, those scales overlap like shingles all over the wing. Their downstream edges tilt upward, leaving narrow gaps between one scale and the next. Experiments show that, although butterflies can fly without their scales, these tiny features make a big difference in their efficiency.

    At the microscale, a butterfly's scales overlap like roof shingles but are tilted upward, leaving cavities in the downstream direction.
    At the microscale, a butterfly’s scales overlap like roof shingles but are tilted upward, leaving cavities in the downstream direction.

    When air flows over the scales, tiny vortices form in the gaps between. These laminar vortices act like roller bearings, helping the flow overhead move along with less friction and, thus, less drag. Compared to a smooth surface, the scales reduce skin friction on the wing by 26-45%. (Image credit: butterfly – E. Minuskin, scales – N. Slegers et al., experiment – S. Gautam; research credit: N. Slegers et al. and S. Gautam; via Physics Today)

    This lab-scale experiment shows how air moves over butterfly scales. As flow moves from left to right, small persistent vortices form in the gaps between scales. These act like roller bearings that reduce the skin friction from air moving past.
    This lab-scale experiment shows how air moves over butterfly scales. As flow moves from left to right, small persistent vortices form in the gaps between scales. These act like roller bearings that reduce the skin friction from air moving past.
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    Butterflies Emerging

    When a butterfly emerges from its chrysalis, it flaps its wings to help pump fluids through its body, essentially inflating its new adult form. You get a glimpse of that process here in this Ant Lab video, along with some spectacular slow motion footage of butterflies taking off. I’m always amazed to see how much butterfly wings flex with each wing beat! Even more impressive is the strength of the insect’s lift; as seen here, a butterfly is strong enough to take off while supporting both itself and a mated insect. (Image and video credit: Ant Lab/A. Smith)

  • Flexible Wings Aid Butterfly Flight

    Flexible Wings Aid Butterfly Flight

    Butterflies are some of the oddest flyers of the insect world, given the large size of their wings relative to their bodies. That could be a recipe for inefficient flight, but a new study shows that butterflies’ large flexible wings actually help them take off quickly.

    When lifting their wings, butterflies use an unusual clapping motion, with the leading edges of their wings coming together before the rest of the wings. This motion helps cup and direct air, creating most of the butterfly’s thrust, according to the researchers. The wings’ flexibility is key to this. Using artificial wings — both stiff and flexible — researchers found that the flexible wings generated 22% more useful impulse and were 28% more efficient. For a tiny flyer with frequent take-offs, that’s an enormous savings! (Image, video, and research credit: L. Johansson and P. Henningsson; via BBC; submitted by Kam-Yung Soh)