Glasswing Butterflies Want To Make Something Perfectly Clear | Deep Look

Teacher or professor: Deep Look
Subject: Biology
Content of the Lesson: Ever wanted to be invisible? The elusive glasswing butterfly knows just how to do it. Its transparent wings, covered in an anti-glare nano-coating, help it hide from its predators in the rainforest. Please join our community on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/deeplook SUBSCRIBE to Deep Look! http://goo.gl/8NwXqt DEEP LOOK is a ultra-HD (4K) short video series created by KQED San Francisco and presented by PBS Digital Studios. See the unseen at the very edge of our visible world. Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small. --- Bay Area biologists are studying a beautiful and exotic butterfly with the hope that their findings may one day improve technologies from eyeglasses to solar panels. Named for their transparent wings, glasswing butterflies have evolved a clever disappearing act to avoid their many predators in the rainforests of South and Central America. “Most things in the rainforest are either bright and flashy or they're trying their best to hide,” said Aaron Pomerantz, a doctoral candidate in the Nipam Patel Lab at UC Berkeley and the Marine Biological Laboratory. “There aren't a lot of things that are just trying to be invisible like the glasswings.” --- What are butterfly wings made of? A butterfly’s wings are mainly composed of chitin, the same tough flexible material that their exoskeleton is made of. Most butterflies’ wings and bodies are covered in row after row of tiny scales that protect the butterfly and keep water from sticking to their wing which would weigh them down. What do butterflies eat? Most butterflies use a long proboscis to drink nectar from flowers. As caterpillars, they mostly eat plants Why do butterflies have bright colors? Some butterflies try to stand out by using bright colors and clashing patterns that serve as a warning to predators. These butterflies typically eat plants rich in chemicals as caterpillars that make them poisonous or distasteful. This type of warning signal is called aposematism. ---+ Read the entire article on KQED Science: https://www.kqed.org/science/1964775/glasswing-butterflies-want-to-make-something-perfectly-clear ---+ For more information: The Patel Lab of Evolutionary Development at the Marine Research Institute in Woods Hole, MA http://www.patellab.net/ ---+ More Great Deep Look episodes: What Gives the Morpho Butterfly Its Magnificent Blue? | Deep Look https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29Ts7CsJDpg Why Is The Very Hungry Caterpillar So Dang Hungry? | Deep Look https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el_lPd2oFV4 The Double-Crossing Ants to Whom Friendship Means Nothing | Deep Look https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fguo3HvWjb0 ---+ Shoutout! 🏆Congratulations🏆 to the following fans on our Deep Look Community Tab for being the first five to correctly identify the microscopic waxy structures that stop the glare on glasswing butterfly's wings: nanopillars! Srijan Srivastava Roslina Tamold Renee Hau Shiny Gamer The Lucky One ---+ Thank you to our Top Patreon Supporters ($10+ per month)! Alex Alexandre Valdetaro Aurora Aurora Mitchell Bill Cass Blanca Vides Burt Humburg Caitlin McDonough Carlos Carrasco Chris B Emrick Chris Murphy Cindy McGill Companion Cube Cristen Rasmussen Daisuke Goto dane rosseter Daniel Pang Daniel Weinstein David Deshpande Dean Skoglund Egg-Roll Elizabeth Ann Ditz Geidi Rodriguez Gerardo Alfaro Guillaume Morin Joao Ascensao Josh Kuroda Joshua Murallon Robertson Kallie Moore Karen Reynolds Kristy Freeman KW Laura Sanborn Laurel Przybylski Leonhardt Wille Levi Cai Louis O'Neill luna Mary Truland monoirre Nathan Wright Nicolette Ray Noreen Herrington Pamela Parker Richard Shalumov Rick Wong Robert Amling Roberta K Wright Sayantan Dasgupta Sharon Merritt Shebastian Reyes Shelley Pearson Cranshaw Silvan Wendland Sonia Tanlimco Steven SueEllen McCann Supernovabetty Syniurge Tea Torvinen Teresa Lavell TierZoo Titania Juang ---+ Follow KQED Science and Deep Look: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/deeplook Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kqedscience/ Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/kqedscience KQED Science on kqed.org: http://www.kqed.org/science Facebook Watch: https://www.facebook.com/DeepLookPBS/ ---+ About KQED KQED, an NPR and PBS affiliate in San Francisco, CA, serves Northern California and beyond with a public-supported alternative to commercial TV, Radio and web media. Funding for Deep Look is provided in part by PBS Digital Studios. Deep Look is a project of KQED Science, which is also supported by the National Science Foundation, the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, the Dirk and Charlene Kabcenell Foundation, the Vadasz Family Foundation, the Fuhs Family Foundation, Campaign 21 and the members of KQED.


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