14th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Natural World
Structural colour in the Morpho Rhetenor

The intense metallic blue colouration from this Morpho Rhetenor butterfly is due to microstructured wings acting like a diffraction grating to incident light.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 11.2015
Date Uploaded: 11.2016
Photo Location: Brockenhurst, United Kingdom
Copyright: © Greg Parker