A closer look at seemingly drab, transparent insect wings has revealed realms of previously unappreciated color, visible to the naked eye yet overlooked for centuries. Until now, the wing colors of ...

Tiny light-scattering structures that give today’s butterflies and moths their brilliant hues date back to the days of the dinosaurs. Fossilized mothlike insects from the Jurassic Period bear textured ...

It sounds like a just-so story—“How the Insect Got its Wings”—but it’s really a mystery that has puzzled biologists for over a century. Intriguing and competing theories of insect wing evolution have ...

Butterflies, with their colorful wings and intricate patterns, may be the world's most popular insects. At the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, visitors can see a close-up view of the ...

Standing in a tropical forest at night, you might hear what sounds like a small bird calling from high in the canopy. Listen ...

Nature doesn’t hold back when it comes to insects. While most people imagine bugs as brown, creepy, or bland, there’s a whole world of creatures that look like they were painted by a surrealist. Here ...

Color patterns play central roles in the behavior of insects, and are important traits for taxonomic studies. Here we report striking and stable structural color patterns—wing interference patterns ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. The insect world teems with beautiful and dazzling species ...

Researchers have shown that the wings of insects are not as fragile as they might look. The characteristic network of veins found in the wings of grasshoppers helps to capture cracks, similar to ...

Tiny insects called treehoppers sport some very odd helmets. Now, researchers have found the insects developed this headgear by reactivating and repurposing their wing-making machinery. "We think this ...

A handful of new studies moves the needle toward a consensus on the long-disputed question of whether insect wings evolved from legs or from the body wall, but the devil is in the details. For more ...