Iridescent Animals: Earth-Touch’s Top 5
3 Oct
Mondays are pretty gloomy at the best of times – and when you add torrential rain into the mix (like the deluge outside the Earth-Touch offices today), some serious brightening-up is in order. So we’re bringing in some iridescence (which, to borrow a spiffy definition from Merriam-Webster, is “a lustrous rainbow-like play of colour caused by differential refraction of light waves”). Now check out our list of nature’s most strikingly iridescent animal characters.
The amazing colouring on this stag beetle does not come from a pigment. What you see here is "structural colouration" - the brilliant colour is produced when microscopic features on an animal interact with light waves. Image via Fir0002/Flagstaffotos, GNU Free Documentation License (http://tiny.cc/pn7xl)
Thousands of intricate and microscopic scale-like structures work together to give this Morpho butterfly its brilliant, iridescent hue. Image via Didier Descouens, Creative Commons.
Like the butterfly's wing, the peacock feather hides a multitude of tiny structures (called barbules) that refract light in order to produce this colourful optical display. Image via Alexcooper1, Creative Commons
The rainbow boa's irredescent sheen is not permanent since the tiny structures that produce it are constantly replaced when the reptile sheds its skin. Image via Angela Rothermann, Creative Commons.
It might be a humble fly, but look closely and its iridescent splendour is revealed. Image via, Care_SMC, Creative Commons.
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