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Updated: Jul 1, 2026
Measuring Spatially- and Directionally-varying Light Scattering from Biological Material
Published on: May 20, 2013
Imaging scatterometry and microspectrophotometry of lycaenid butterfly wing scales with perforated multilayers
Bodo D Wilts1, Hein L Leertouwer, Doekele G Stavenga
1Department of Neurobiophysics, University of Groningen, NL 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
We studied the structural as well as spatial and spectral reflectance characteristics of the wing scales of lycaenid butterfly species, where the scale bodies consist of perforated multilayers. The extent of the spatial scattering profiles was measured with a newly built scatterometer. The width of the reflectance spectra, measured with a microspectrophotometer, decreased with the degree of perforation, in agreement with the calculations based on multilayer theory.
