- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine
Access Provided by Xinjiang University

Physical Review E

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Access by Xinjiang University

Switchable reflector in the Panamanian tortoise beetle Charidotella egregia (Chrysomelidae: Cassidinae)

Jean Pol Vigneron1,*, Jacques M. Pasteels2, Donald M. Windsor3, Zofia Vértesy4, Marie Rassart1, Thomas Seldrum1, Jacques Dumont1, Olivier Deparis1, Virginie Lousse1 et al.

László P. Biró4, Damien Ertz5, and Victoria Welch1

  • 1Département de Physique, Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix, 61 rue de Bruxelles, B-5000 Namur, Belgium
  • 2Laboratoire d’Etho-Ecologie Evolutive, Université Libre de Bruxelles, CP 160/12 50, Avenue F. D. Roosevelt, B-1050 Bruxelles, Belgium
  • 3Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Smithsonian Institution, Roosvelt Avenue, Tupper Building, 401 Balboa, Ancón, Panama
  • 4Research Institute for Technical Physics and Materials Science, P.O. Box 49, H-1525 Budapest, Hungary
  • 5National Botanic Garden of Belgium, Domein van Bouchout, B-1860 Meise, Belgium

  • *jean-pol.vigneron@fundp.ac.be
PDF

Phys. Rev. E 76, 031907 – Published 11 September, 2007

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.76.031907

Abstract

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. It 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.

View figure in article

Article Text

References (35)

  1. A. Vallin, S. Jakobsson, J. Lind, and C. Wiklund, Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. B 272, 1203 (2005).
  2. P. de Grijs, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 3, 396 (1899).
  3. A. Best, Ann. Sci. 24, 147 (1968).
  4. J. C. Murphy, H. K. Voris, and M. Auliya, Raffles Bull. Zool. 53, 271 (2005).
  5. R. T. Hanlon, M. R. Maxwell, N. Shashar, E. R. Loew, and K.-L. Boyle, Biol. Bull. 197, 49 (1999).
  6. M. Norman, J. Finn, and T. Tregenza, Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. B 268, 1755 (2001).
  7. H. Giersberg, Zeitschrift fur Vergleichende Physiologie 7, 657 (1928).
  8. M. Dupont-Raabe, C. R. Hebd. Seances Acad. Sci. 232, 386 (1951).
  9. M. Dupont-Raabe, Arch. Zool. Exp. Gen. 94, 61 (1957).
  10. E. Martini and I. Achundow, Zool. Anz. 81, 25 (1929).
  11. G. Teissier, C. R. Hebd. Seances Acad. Sci. 225, 204 (1947).
  12. A. Kopenec, Zeitschrift fur Vergleichende Physiologie 31, 490 (1949).
  13. K. H. L. Key and M. F. Day, Aust. J. Zool. 2, 309 (1954).
  14. K. H. L. Key and M. F. Day, Aust. J. Zool. 2, 340 (1954).
  15. A. F. O’Farrell, Austr. J. Sci. 25, 437 (1963).
  16. A. F. O’Farrell, J. Entomol. Soc. Aust. (N.S.W.) 1, 5 (1964).
  17. A. F. O’Farrell, Proc. R. Entomol. Soc. London Ser. C 33, 26 (1968).
  18. A. F. O’Farrell, Proceedings of the 13th International Congress on Entomology, 1968, Vol. 1, p. 534.
  19. J. E. N. Veron, Ph.D. thesis, University of New England, 1972.
  20. J. E. N. Veron, Odonatologica (Utr.) 2, 21 (1973).
  21. J. E. N. Veron, J. Insect Physiol. 19, 1689 (1973).
  22. J. E. N. Veron, J. Insect Physiol. 20, 1 (1974).
  23. H. Hinton, Sci. Prog. 48, 341 (1960).
  24. H. Hinton and G. Jarman, Nature (London) 238, 160 (1972).
  25. P. Jolivet, Novel Aspect of the Biology of Chrysomelidae (Kluwer Academic, Netherlands, 1994), pp. 331–335.

  26. A single slab of transparent material (Fabry-Pérot structure) with low refractive index selects specific colors in reflection, due to the interference of the waves multiply reflected from its surfaces. When many slabs are stacked on top of each other (but still separated by air or another material with a different refractive index), the resulting structure (a multilayer) also selects spectral bands for reflection, but much narrower and much more intense than for a single slab. Weak refractive index multilayer stacks are selective mirrors that reflect very saturated colors. When all the slabs have the same thickness we have a periodic multilayer, also called a Bragg mirror. If the thicknesses of the slabs change slightly from one slab to the next, we have a chirped multilayer, which is usually a high-efficiency broadband (wide-spectrum) reflector.

  27. S. Berthier, Iridescences, les Couleurs Physiques des Insectes (Springer-Verlag, Paris, 2003).
  28. D. M. Windsor, E. G. Riley, and H. P. Stockwell, Insect of Panama and Mesoamerica, Selected Studies (Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York, Tokyo, 1992), pp. 372–391.
  29. A. Parker, J. R. Soc., Interface 2, 1 (2005).
  30. A. Neville, Biology of the Arthropod Cuticle (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, 1975).
  31. J. P. Vigneron and V. Lousse, Proc. SPIE 6128, 61281G (2006).
  32. J. P. Vigneron, M. Rassart, C. Vandenbem, V. Lousse, O. Deparis, L. P. Biro, D. Dedouaire, A. Cornet, and P. Defrance, Phys. Rev. E 73, 041905 (2006).
  33. A. C. Neville and S. Caveney, Biol. Rev. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 44, 531 (1969).
  34. A. A. Michelson, Philos. Mag. 21, 554 (1911).
  35. R. A. Potyrailo, H. Ghiradella, A. Vertiatchikh, K. Dovidenko, J. R. Cournoyer, and E. Olson, Nat. Photonics 1, 123 (2007).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. E 76, 031907– Published 11 September, 2007
  • Received 29 April 2007

© 2007 American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation