Nanostructural Influence on Optical and Thermal Properties of Butterfly Wing Scales Across Forest Vertical Strata.

Butterfly wing scales feature complex nanostructures that influence wing coloration and various mechanical and optical properties. This configuration plays a key role in ecological interactions, flight conditions, and thermoregulation, facilitated by interactions with environmental electromagnetic energy. In tropical forests, butterflies occupy distinct vertical habitats, experiencing significant light and temperature variations.

Forest stratification shapes allometry and flight morphology of tropical butterflies.

Studies of altitudinal and latitudinal gradients have identified links between the evolution of insect flight morphology, landscape structure and microclimate. Although lowland tropical rainforests offer steeper shifts in conditions between the canopy and the understorey, this vertical gradient has received far less attention. Butterflies, because of their great phenotypic plasticity, are excellent models to study selection pressures that mould flight morphology.