The Evolution Of Structural Color In Butterfly Wing Scales

在这个项目中，PI将研究蝴蝶翅膀的颜色。在蝴蝶翅膀上发现的绚丽色彩吸引了生物学家和物理学家的注意。这些颜色中的许多是由于光与翅膀鳞片表面上的纳米结构相互作用。特别是，该项目的目的是关注一组密切相关的物种，这些物种具有显着不同的颜色，并具有已知的进化历史。这将允许PI检查规模结构中可能产生颜色变化的最小量的形态变化。PI将结合联合收割机的描述和理论方法，结合实验方法，以充分了解结构色是如何产生在这组蝴蝶。他们将采用两种主要方法：第一种方法将涉及蝴蝶属Bicyclus的翅膀鳞片颜色和相关形态的比较。第二种方法将针对使用人工选择在复制线的Bicyclus anynana蝴蝶的鳞片颜色的变化，并描述了相关的纳米结构的鳞片的形态变化。 PI将培训研究生和本科生，其中许多是女性，并积极参与各种针对更广泛公众的外联活动。其中一名PI将参加耶鲁大学为当地高中和中学设立的教育推广计划。研究人员还将制作一个基于网络的互动动画，展示不同的结构颜色是如何在一个紧密的蝴蝶群体中进化的，并广泛传播他们的研究结果。

In this project the PIs will study wing colors in butterflies. The brilliant colors found on the wings of butterflies have attracted attention from biologists and physicists alike. Many of these colors are due to light interacting with the nano-structures on the surface of the wing scales. In particular the aim of this project is to focus on a group of closely related species that have remarkably different colors, and have a known evolutionary history. This will allow the PIs to examine the smallest amounts of morphological change in a scale's structure that can produce a change in color. The PIs will combine descriptive and theoretical approaches coupled to experimental methods to fully understand how structural colors are produced in this group of butterflies. They will pursue two main approaches: The first approach will involve a comparison of wing scale color and associated morphology across the butterfly genus Bicyclus. The second approach will target a change in scale color using artificial selection in replicate lines of Bicyclus anynana butterflies, and describe the associated morphological changes in the nano-structure of the scales. The PIs will train graduate and undergraduate students, many of them women, as well as actively participating in a variety of outreach activities that are aimed at the broader public. One of the PIs will participate in established Yale education outreach programs to local high schools and middle schools. The PIs will also produce an interactive web-based animation showing how diverse structural colors evolved in a close group of butterflies, and disseminate the results from their findings broadly.