Colour

Innovation from Nature

Butterflies and other insects really know how to show off. Copper butterflies glow orange and violet, rose chafers gleam golden, and green hairstreaks are as green as grass. With striking patterns or an elegant shimmer, they court the opposite sex, imitate their surroundings, or deter predators.

How it works: Not only pigments give butterflies their colours. Microscopic structures on the surface of their wing scales also play a role. Pigment colours include orange, black and yellow. Structural colours include blue, white, green and violet. They arise through an optical effect: the way light is reflected by the wing scales determines the visible colour.

→ Structural colours like those found in the insect world can be created by thin layers of different materials. Fabrics woven from microscopically fine threads have light-reflecting properties similar to those of butterfly wing scales and can be vividly coloured without any pigments at all.