Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Wave optics provides the necessary ingredients to explain the coloration of some representatives of the animal kingdom: insects, spiders, birds, snakes, fishes, worms ... This work is just a simple case study, targeting the search for the cause of the coloration of a splendid insect we (in Belgium), can easily find in our backyard, provided we leave enough space - as everyone should do - for spontaneous grow of wild plants. This study of the coloration mechanism of the leaf beetle Chrysolina fastuosa, like most other biophotonic estigation, involves two distinct observations: the first one describes the optical properties, and the second one investigates the nano-morphology, of the coloured body external surfaces. One also insist that it also involves proving that the observed structure is actually responsible for the coloration, and this implies physical modelling and computer simulations

BR Staff Publications [b] (paper in not reviewed journal) --- physics --- morphology --- insects

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The tortoise beetle Charidotella egregia is able to modify the structural color of its cuticle reversibly, when disturbed by stressful external events. After field observations, measurements of the optical properties in the two main stable color states and scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope investigations, a physical mechanism is proposed to explain the color switching of this insect. Is is shown that the gold coloration displayed by animals at rest arises from a chirped multilayer reflector maintained in a perfect coherent state by the presence of humidity in the porous patches within each layer, while the red color displayed by disturbed animals results from the destruction of this reflector by the expulsion of the liquid from the porous patches, turning the multilayer into a translucent slab that leaves an unobstructed view of the deeper-lying, pigmented red substrate. This mechanism not only explains the change of hue but also the change of scattering mode from specular to diffuse. Quantitative modeling is developed in support of this analysis

BR Staff Publications [a] (paper in international, peer reviewed journal) --- Chrysomelidae --- quantitative analysis