Comments on: Forget butterflies – wasps and flies have hidden rainbows in their wings

By: MrO

MrO — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 01:51:20 +0000

Thanks Ed! Of course, I´ll continue to read your blog as I have been doing since i discovered it!

By: magetoo

magetoo — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:54:11 +0000

Oh, fascinating post, by the way. Almost forgot!

The whole idea that you can get all these colors from constructive / destructive interference, whether it is in wings or oil films, is one of those totally unexpected revelations that I wish I could go back and tell my younger self, it’s just so damn cool.

By: Dekart

Dekart — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:47:18 +0000

Maurizio Morabito: Since “every hair, bump, ridge and vein affects the pattern of the WIPs”, in what way are they “unique to different species”? (question)

I think the unique or species specific WIP is formed by a combination of all microstructure features. It is like the whole complex of things : arrangement of veins, hair placement, pigments if any and microstructures of the very wing membrane including thickness profile. And all these things are not about to change (unless artificially) during life of a fully developed insect as far as we know for now. So species specific WIP is caused by the whole wing morphology which is reasonably similar in all individuals within a species (a certain level of variation is perfectly normal), and by changing (evolving differences) some of the parametres of the wing one will get a different overall pattern.

By: magetoo

magetoo — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:44:09 +0000

The slideshow thing, which no doubt is very snazzy if you can see it, also doesn’t show up if you’re blocking Javascript by default. (or switch it off entirely)

(The phrase you want to mention to the tech guys is “progressive enhancement”.) :-)

By: Maurizio Morabito

Maurizio Morabito — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 10:59:35 +0000

Since “every hair, bump, ridge and vein affects the pattern of the WIPs”, in what way are they “unique to different species”? (question)

By: chris

chris — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 08:29:10 +0000

I wonder how huge the differences between the WIPs are of live and well dried animals (pressure in the veins influence the wing thickness..). I also wonder how the patterns are influenced by the bending/torsion of the wings in flight. There’s the potential of the final message of god being displayed on the wings of a fly during escape from a towel-swatting.

By: Andy Van Pelt

Andy Van Pelt — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 01:57:45 +0000

Ed: The slide show doesn’t show up when browsing using Google Reader. It only shows up when you click on the link to open it up in a separate tab. I was confused at first too.

By: zackoz

zackoz — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 01:47:45 +0000

On fig wasps, in one of his books (can’t recall which one) Dawkins has a long and complicated explanation of male fig wasp competition, often involving deadly fights inside the fig. I don’t remember him mentioning the female breaking off her wings, though.
Every time I eat a fig now, I have to try not to think of a wasp possibly being inside it.

The female wings visible at the entrance to the fig would presumably be an invitation to the males to come and try their luck.

Even though no pigmentation is involved, I imagine that Hox genes still have a role in constructing the wings and thus creating the colours, by influencing the thickness at various points.

By: MrO

MrO — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 01:30:39 +0000

Hello Ed,
I have read in one of your excellent posts (can´t remmember which, thought) that you are not very interested in human evolution and that’s the reason why you do not post a lot about this matter. I am really interested in that subject, so, since I trust your advise, I would like to ask you, please, to recommend to me one blog as scientifically serious and well written as yours (english is not my first language as I am sure you have already noticed) but specifically dedicated to prehistory or that pays a lot of attention to it.

Thank you very much

[You should read Carl Zimmer's The Loom, Brian Switek's Laelaps, or anything that Kate Wong writes at Scientific American. - Ed]

By: Mothammad

Mothammad — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 23:50:56 +0000

Funny, i’ve seen this after examining the swatted flies and wasps and whatnot. Kinda figured it’s known already.
But not in such detail as the photos though, so well done there.