Morpho Didius 10x Stack! Third Time's the Charm!

[Macro_Cosmos]

I bought a Morpho Didius butterfly specimen from a local breeder a while ago. Ran a couple stacks on my old horizontal setup. Oof, it was pretty bad. I didn't even know there were many of these transparent scales. I guess these are the reason why the butterfly is shiny?

The first stack turned out to be pretty bad:

Full resolution: https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1970/307 ... 111f_o.jpg
At screen magnification, it looks decent. Just don't zoom in...


I decided to not diffuse for the second stack... it was in my opinion worse:

Full resolution: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4845/449 ... b9ce_o.jpg
This one looks better on the screen actually, the shiny transparent scales create some sort of misty glossy effect. Just don't zoom in...

Welp, I guess my skills were the limit. After the studies I had were dealt with, I built a vertical setup, and I decided to give this beauty another spin. It turned out to be great!

Full resolution: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4844/445 ... 466b_o.jpg

Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/2aUaTP5
(Information such as settings can be found here)

Happy with this result! I think it's time to venture into higher magnifications. I can already see my wallet being empty again.

[Lou Jost]

Congratulations for not giving up! Very nice final stack.

[rjlittlefield]

Nice set of images! Those transparent scales are hard to see in the web-sized images. I might well have overlooked them if not for your comment.

I didn't even know there were many of these transparent scales. I guess these are the reason why the butterfly is shiny?

Maybe under certain special conditions, like catching the sun just right.

But if none of them are shiny in your photo setup, then I have to wonder why they would be shiny in nature.

And if they did catch a reflection, I think it would be just a reflection of ambient light, so yellowish white for the sun.

Those brilliant blue scales, on the other hand, are both highly reflective -- for blue light! -- and intensely colored as a result. If I were to say "shiny", I think it would be those scales I'd be talking about.

--Rik

[Lou Jost]

Those transparent scales are a well-known feature of certain Morpho species. They add a "pearly" sheen and made the reflection less directional. Some species lack these, like M cypris and M rhetenor-- those species are like flashing mirrors when they fly, a very different effect than the ones with the transparent scales.

[Macro_Cosmos]

Nice set of images! Those transparent scales are hard to see in the web-sized images. I might well have overlooked them if not for your comment.

I didn't even know there were many of these transparent scales. I guess these are the reason why the butterfly is shiny?

Maybe under certain special conditions, like catching the sun just right.

But if none of them are shiny in your photo setup, then I have to wonder why they would be shiny in nature.

And if they did catch a reflection, I think it would be just a reflection of ambient light, so yellowish white for the sun.

Those brilliant blue scales, on the other hand, are both highly reflective -- for blue light! -- and intensely colored as a result. If I were to say "shiny", I think it would be those scales I'd be talking about.

--Rik

Those transparent scales are a well-known feature of certain Morpho species. They add a "pearly" sheen and made the reflection less directional. Some species lack these, like M cypris and M rhetenor-- those species are like flashing mirrors when they fly, a very different effect than the ones with the transparent scales.

Thanks for the information! "Shiny" is being used rather loosely in my case... obviously the wings do not shine on its own but they rather reflect light. I'm using some kind of reflected light technique which is rather flat, kind of hard to illustrate what the human eye sees. It's sort of like glitter paper and has a specific nice texture to it.

An illustration of the "shininess" would be typical ebay listings, such as this:
This is the eBay link

The glossy effect seen in the listing photos above if what I see. Mine is a deep blue colour and doesn't cost the price of a new Mitty 10x lens. If one imports from Japan, then that's a 10x plus a 5x. Crazy how expensive these specimens can be.

I'll see if I can run a low magnification stack using my lighting setup for high contrast to illustrate the glossiness.

Oh, and here's a new stack:


Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/RyGp9j

This one turned out very well, I just ordered some more similar butterflies, gonna get busy after celebrating Christmas!

--MC[/quote]

[MarkSturtevant]

I did not know about transparant scales in morphos. It seems to me that the blue reflective scales must also be transparant (colorless?) scales -- at least in the sense of not being pigmented.
Anyway, in the last picture I see some partly blue reflective / partly colorless scales.

[Lou Jost]

Yes Mark, the "blue" scales are colorless, but they are not transparent, as the structure contains melanin, a black pigment.

The "cover scales" are translucent or transparent. As I mentioned above, they vary greatly between species, and are responsible for the pearliness of the blue, and the degree of directionality to the blue reflection. That's why the blue of Morpho peliades is so non-directional while Morpho cypris is a flying, flashing mirror.

[Lou Jost]

Here is an article that discusses the cover scales I mentioned above:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/ ... .2003.2618

[Lou Jost]

And something on the surprisingly long and detailed history of using Morpho butterfly scales as test subjects for microscope objectives:
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/ind ... uzzle.html

[santiago]

The last image is my favourite, beautiful colors and amazing quality.