Multifunctionality of Butterfly Species via Scaling Law

Over the recent decades, the bright colors seen on the wings of butterflies are widely evaluated frequently due to the cause of nano-structures and are not supported by preferable pigments or any other dyes. This nature of bright and shiny appearance of various butterflies are caused by so-called ‘structural features of various response of colours’ which are originating from the smart combination of nano- and microstructures. For the discovery of the physical origin of these structural colors, the color-causing nano-structures are integrated into a complex structure of scales, which have densely covers the wings of butterflies. A research team has recently discussed about the structural analysis of the ridges of the cover scales in the species of butterflies and its height and distance from different families and its subsequent analysis reveals a linear scaling law [1].

Peter Kӧchling et al., have further reported that the color of the butterfly wings serves for several purposes with ranging from camouflage to mating along with thermoregulation, and the overall scale structures are believed to assist with self-cleaning, aerodynamics, and easy release of spider webs. The optical effective part needs to be integrated into a structure to serve for the purpose of including self-cleaning, aerodynamics, and thermoregulation, which has to fulfill the mechanical constraints. For the evolutionary design, this multi-functionality of butterfly scale ridges were caused via various constraints. Furthermore, the evolutionary constraints will prevent the butterfly scales from the development of fully arbitrary shape [1].

During 1920s, it can be interestingly noted that, the discovery of some principles of structural colours in butterflies on the high-resolution microscopy was scaled and limited only to the optical methods. However, in the recent decades, the simulation techniques on the imaging of nano-scale structures and the advent of advanced microscopy has become the standard procedure. As, it can be observed that, sometimes it is very tricky to identify the optical effective components of nanostructures, because it is hidden with a complex design, which is not only responsible for colour effects. Hence, these multi-dimensional constraints will prevent a nano-structure embedded in to the butterfly scales that can be identified for the colour production.

By analysing the geometry of ridges, one can observe that, the scaling law has caused via multifunctionality. Ten different butterfly species from 7 sub-families and 3 families of Lepidoptera were been analysed and they observe that the ridges in the scales of butterflies follows on the ‘scaling law’. Figure 1 depicts the examination/study of photos with dorsal sides of all examined butterflies arranged in the world map to indicate their natural habitat which have originate from all over the continents that are differ in colour appearance and habitat. The distance between two ridges is found to be roughly twice of its height, i.e., the ratio between these two parameters is roughly constant.

Figure 1. Photo examination study of butterflies arranged in a world map to indicate their natural habitat [1].

Distance between the height of the ridges

Analysis of all butterfly species (Ten species) are considered and the most prominent distinguishable parts of their wings are evaluated. For every butterfly species, they have measured for at least three different areas. And some of the butterflies were recorded for the data upto ten areas, which includes of dorsal and ventral sides. By this way, finally they obtained between one and ten averaged pairs of height and the distance data for each butterfly species. The distance between the ridges were plotted on the horizontal axis and its corresponding height were plotted on vertical axis. However, still there will be some scatter data that can be observed and some butterflies will have smaller ridge heights and distances. It is very important to be noteworthy that, they mention the ratio of the height and distance of ridges which can holds only for cover scales.

Various studies have shown that the butterfly scales are seen with specific colouring elements that have caused a tremendous effect with a variety of colours over 157000 species that are described in the order of Lepidoptera. These species (Lepidoptera) are found to be positive correlation between scale length and wing which is the best fit for a nonlinear power law [2].

It can be observed that the scaling law were preferred only for the cover scales and not for the ground scales. Further, their assumption was the simple morphogenesis, which is not for the cause of observation. On considering the fact, the butterfly scales are found with different shapes. Also, it seems that the scaling of the ridges observed over the cover scales is due to the result of genetic constraints with the typical geometry.

The scaling law have possess certain advantages on the cleaning of butterfly wings. Butterfly wings can also self-clean to remove the dirt particles when they are sprayed with liquids or water. The cleaning effect is mainly compared to the cleaning observed on several super hydrophobic plant leaves (e.g. famous lotus leaf) [3].

Our SNB team have emphasize this research article to enrich our viewer’s knowledge about the structural and featural analysis of the ridges over the cover scales in different butterflies species and its height and distance from different families. The subsequent analysis reveals a linear scaling law. Most likely, the scaling law is based upon the result of multifunctional optimization. The core fact is that the various butterflies will follow up on this presented scaling law for their cover scales and not for the ground scales. This suggests that this structural constraint is the most important at the surface of thin wings. Furthermore, most butterflies were live only for a short time or they might have live in a very dry environment, so that there is no any rain at all during in their full lifetime. Consequently, they have exclude the ridges of the scaling law, which is very important for a wet self cleaning effect. Hence, the structure of the upper lamina can potentially influence the drag for the improvement for dry self-cleaning properties, which have benefits from the scaling law of the ridges.

References

Peter Kӧchling, et al., Faraday Discuss., 223, 195 (2020).
T. J. Simonsen and N. P. Kristensen, J. Nat. Hist., 37, 673 (2003).
M. Raupp, What do butterflies do when it rains? https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-do-butterflies-do-wh/, accessed2020-04-05.

--- Dr. Y. Sasikumar

Author Profile

Comments

PROSPECTS ON PHOTOBIOREFINERY

Very recently, Prof. Dr. K. Faungnawakij and his research group have summarized a mini review report on an emerging renewable technique of Photobiorefinery . This is one of the beyond technique of Artificial Photosynthesis (AP) [1] . Despite great promises, AP technologies for solar H2 production and CO2 reduction are far uncompetitive to other promising technologies at the current stage . However, despite an enormous effort, time, and budget paid on AP-related researches throughout several decades, AP technologies have struggled to strive beyond laboratory demonstration except a very few exceptions [2] . This bitter reality makes the translation of this excellent science to practical application questionable [3] . Technoeconomic analysis shows that without achieving the aggressive technology targets, this technology will not be commercially viable. This has directed the research community towards the development of highly efficient yet expensive devices. While tremendous p...

Impact on Climate and Land Use Changes Around Ganga River

In India, Ganga is the largest river and also famous spiritual river, in meantime pollution issue in Ganga river is considered to be one of the most discussed topics on river water quality in the past decades . The river gets s everely polluted with untreated industrial and human wastes, and the river crossed around 11 states in India and provides water for about 40% of India's population, approximately 500 million people, we couldn’t find more than any other river in the world [ 1, 2 ]. Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has mentioned that 764 grossly polluting industries were discharging into the Ganga river, 487 industries are from the Kanpur region. Therefore, the Kanpur region was treated as the main polluted spot and immediate action should be taken for further recovery of water quality. The Kanpur region is one of the most important industrialized place in India. It is the most polluted stretch of the Ganga River, because of its excessive pollutant discharge from the i...

Electric Vehicle: Public Health and Climate Benefits

A research team led by Daniel Peters at Northwestern University has investigated that if we introducing electrifying vehicles in the streets of the United States could annually prevent hundreds-to-thousands of premature accidental deaths.This work highlights the potential of a synergistic solution to reduce CO 2 emissions by hundreds to millions of tons annually. The estimate of economic damages induced by introducing electrifying vehicles (EV) adoption is substantial. With current infrastructure, about 25% of electrifying vehicles adoption in the US can save approximately $16.8 billion annually, has been told in the study entitled"Public Health and Climate Benefits and Trade offs of U.S. Vehicle Electrification," in GeoHealth on 13 th August 2020 [1] . Vehicle electrification in the United States could prevent hundreds to thousands of premature deaths annually while reducing carbon emissions by hundreds of millions of tons. This highlights the potential of co-beneficial...

Plasmonic Gold Nanoparticles as Designing Caps

Plasmonic nanomaterials have attracted significant interest because of its wide variety of applications such as sensing, energy conversion, photothermal therapy etc. Among the various plasmonic inorganic metals (Ag, Cu, Al, and Au) Au shows the excellent biocompatibility, chemical stability, and rich surface functionality. It can be seen that some new approaches have include the construction of metal shells on dielectric nanoparticles, and the control of island growth on nanoparticles and nanorods over the design of narrow gaps via nanoplates or nanoshells. Also, the conventional modulation of plasmonics via the control of shape, size and the aspect ratio of nanomaterials. The structural control have also arises from the active surface growth. As a result, the dynamic competition between ligand absorption and metal deposition occurs [ 1 ]. The properties of plasmonic nanostructures are highly dependent on its surface morphology, however, there are a very few methods for a...

Efficient Bio-Diesel Synthesis: Reusable Magnetic Catalysis

Prof. Anping Wang et al., with his research collaborative team from china ( 1. Guizhou University, China; and 2. Guizhou Normal University, China) and India (National Chemical Laboratory, India) have reviewed the research over views on the preparation methods, physicochemical properties, stabilization/functionalization, and the catalytic applications of magnetic materials, including magnetic acids, bases, enzymes, and acid-base bifunctional materials for the synthesis of bio-diesel. Here, we discuss only the preparation of efficient bio-diesel with merits and applications of magnetic nanocatalyst for the bio-diesel preparation . Bio-diesel products are mainly attain from bio mass feed stocks, which gives more attention in the biorefinery research affairs [1]. A green way of renewable liquid biofuels are emergency required one in present atmosphere. Among the various classes, best one is renewable diesel fuel, the chemical content of long-chain fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) or ethy...

Scientific Research Focus on “To End Hunger”

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO UN), Hunger Report, Ending hunger is a major objective of the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), hunger is the term used to define periods when populations are experiencing severe food insecurity - means that they go for entire days without eating due to lack of money, lack of access to food, or other resources [ 1 ]. Hunger is strongly interconnected with poverty, and it involves interactions among an array of social, political, demographic, and societal factors. An attention is must in the following topics to put an end card for poor hunger: Global Hunger Index (GHI). World Food Program’s 2020. Global Report on Food Crises. Smallholder-farming. Ceres2030. The two main international institutions are the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) , joined forces to estimate what it would cost to ...

Detection of Cancer via New Nano-Based Imaging Agents

New imaging agents were developed by physicians to detect cancer with better specificity and sensitivity. Further, they have the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes. It could offer enhanced premature cancer cells detection during routine screening and help the surgeons to identify tumor margins for surgical resection. Figure 1. In vivo visualization of 200 nm G8-liposomes imaged following intravenous injection [ 1 ]. Notice the bright accumulation and homogenous appearance of liposomes encapsulated with G8 dye (green). The vasculature region depicted here is of the mouse ear where real time flow video was taken at 30 fps. Scale bar represents 50 μm. Recently, Helen R. Salinas et al ., has evaluated the optical properties from a colorful class of pigments and dyes that humans routinely encounter [ 1 ]. These selective dyes and pigments are approved by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which have utilized for the coloring of foods, drugs, and cosmetics. The authors...

A Biomimetic Eye with Perovskite Nanowire

The term “Biomimetics” derived from Ancient Greek, refers to life imitation. It is an interdisciplinary field in which comes from biology, engineering, and chemistry concepts. Biomimetics is applied to the synthesis of machines, or devices, which have functions that mimic real-life biological processes. Prof. Fan Zhiyoung , Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China, and his team (from the University of California and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA) has reported on the effective biological eye results with a new development “Biomimetic Eye” with supportive components such as hemispherical shape retina and perovskite nanowires [1] . Our eyes possess exceptional image and sensing nature, which selectively express the wide field of view, resolution, and sensitivity [2] . A specialty of biomimetic eye parts with such highlighted characteristics is a desirable one, speci...

RENEWABLE ENERGY'S ROLE IN ENVIRONMENTAL CLEEN-UP PROCESS

Human activity is overloading our atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other global warming emissions. These gases act like a blanket, trapping heat. The result is a web of significant and harmful impacts, from stronger, more frequent storms, to drought, sea level rise, and extinction. Most of global warming emissions come from our electricity sector. Most of those emissions come from fossil fuels like coal and natural gas . Sulfur dioxide (SO2) , which cause acid rain, comes from electricity generation. Nitrogen oxides (NOx) , which react with sunlight to create ground level ozone and smog, come from electricity generation. Ozone (O3) occurs naturally in the upper atmosphere where it is beneficial. Particulate matter is a type of air pollution more commonly referred to as soot. Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global climate change. Mercury is a highly toxic metal that is released from coal-fired power plants. In contra...

Detection and Diagnosis: Heavy Toxic Metals

Prof. Youzhi Li, from Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China and his research team have recently published, “Total concentrations and sources of heavy metal pollution in global river and lake water bodies from 1972 to 2017”. They discussed on heavy metals like lead (Pb) cause a severe threat to living beings because of its toxicity and bioaccumulation. Heavy metals like lead (Pb) cause a severe threat to living beings because of its toxicity and bioaccumulation. Amongst the heavy metals, lead (Pb) is the well-known one for its historical use in paints, petrol, and fuse joints in water pipes. Though the tradition of using Pb has been considerably decreased in recent years, Pb in drinking water still remains to be a problem for many societies around the world [ 1 ]. Hence, it is one of the supreme importance to monitor the levels of Pb in drinking water, so that contamination can be promptly identified and moderated. The World Health Organization (WHO) mentions a guideline l...

Search This Blog