The Incredible Glasswing Butterfly: Some Stunning Photos
Take a close look at the incredible Glasswing, an enchanting species that confounds science.
The Glasswinged butterfly (Greta oto) is a beautiful brush-footed butterfly. Greta oto adults exhibit a number of interesting behaviours, such as long migrations and lekking (gathering of males for competitive mating displays). The wings are translucent, with a wingspan of 5.6 to 6.1 cm (2.2 to 2.4 in). Its most common English name is glasswinged butterfly, and its Spanish name is “espejitos”, which means “little mirrors.”
The Glasswinged butterfly gets its name because the tissue between the veins of its wings looks like glass, as it lacks the coloured scales found in other butterflies [Source: Wikipedia].
Check out some more stunning photos of the beautiful creature.. !!!
Photograph by Swamibu on Flickr
Photograph by David Fre on Flickr
Photograph via butterflies.co.za
Photograph via Imgur
A close look at Greta oto reveals that between the veins of its wings the tissue is virtually see through) or, properly, translucent). Most other butterflies have colored scales which pattern the wings, quite often to ward off predators. The glasswing has another way of doing this entirely, but over the millennia it has evolved these specific wings to hide itself from predators rather than to warn them off. The only way that you can tell that it has wings at all are the borders, which are of a dark hue, sometimes bordering on the orange. Were it not for these borders, the glasswing would be more or less invisible to the human eye.
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