EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

The Butterfly With The Glass Wings

Glasswinged Butterfly (Greta cf. oto), Family Nymphalidae
Mindo, Ecuador

Explanation:  How can a butterfly ever get more delicate than this?  This is the amazing glasswinged butterfly, with transparent wing panes.  What a superb representative of these Andean subtropical forests, here in Mindo, Ecuador.  

What could be the advantage of such a feature?  Butterflies rely mostly on camouflage to avoid predators, rather than on escape speed, defensive attacks, or other tactics (although some species such as monarch butterflies may rely on aposematism or bright colors to advertise that they contain toxins and are bad-tasting, to "teach" predators to reject them as food).  

Perhaps the transparent wing panes evolved as a great way to really blend in with the background, leaving just the rim of the wings to also break up the body outline.  Our technology is just beginning to develop "invisibility cloaks" but this insect has had it for quite some time.  

Apparently, too, the pupae of glasswinged butterflies are shiny, reflective, and chrome-like or greenish, which might be yet another way to reflect their environment and blend in.  

I know I say this a lot, but nature is friggin' amazing!