The Microstructures of Butterfly Wing Scales in Northeast of China

There are billions of tiny scales on the butterfly wings, which array regularly as the tiles on the roof. Such tilts can form various colors of the wing and afford the species many abilities to survive and propagate. Morphological experiments on the wing scales of six butterfly species living in northeast of China were conducted. By the optics microscope, the form, geometry dimension and array of the scales were observed generally. By using scanning electron microscope (SEM), the 2D scanning and measurement were carried out and the surface micro configurations of scales were observed. The dimension and microstructure characteristics of the cross section of single scale were achieved through transmission electron microscope (TEM). Finally, by using 3D software, three 3D models were described and the 3D visual effect was achieved. This work can put forward a basic method for the future study on the morphology of biological microstructure.