Nature's miniature solar panels: the thermal properties of butterfly wing scales and their evolution

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The wings of butterflies are covered in thousands of scalesthat have evolved to serve a range of functions includingaerodynamic efficiency, colour signalling, camouflage,hydrophobicity and thermoregulation. Fundamental tothese functions is the nanostructure of the scales.Interest in organisms' adaptation to their thermalenvironment has grown in recent years as we try tounderstand and predict how organisms will respond toclimate change. Butterflies are one of the best-studiedinsect groups with respect to thermal adaptation. They arealso somewhat unusual in having large, scale-coveredwings, which they use for thermoregulation, both to absorbsolar radiation to warm up and to radiate heat away fromthe body to cool down. While the importance of the wingsfor thermoregulation has been known for some time, onlyrecently has the importance of the wing scalenanostructures begun to be appreciated.