A team of researchers led by Jin Zhang and Zhongfan Liu (Peking University) have used the wings of cicadas as stamps to pattern polymer films with nanometer-sized structures. What does a colorful and ...

Researchers have developed a model that can recreate, with only a few parameters, the wing patterns of a large group of insects, shedding light on how these complex patterns form. For many species of ...

Researchers report a developmental model for reconstructing the complex and elaborate vein patterns seen in insect wings. The study of vein formation in insect wings has previously focused on primary ...

The structure of an insect's wing depends on the type of insect, but basically it consists of a thin film of chitin and a thick pulse called "wing vein" that supports it. Wings of small insects such ...

Color patterns play central roles in the behavior of insects, and are important traits for taxonomic studies. Here we report striking and stable structural color patterns—wing interference patterns ...

Anew developmental model recreates the vein patterns of insect wings, reported in PNAS on September 17. While previous studies have focused on analyzing primary veins that are largely shared across a ...

About 350 million years ago, our planet witnessed the evolution of the first flying creatures. They are still around, and some of them continue to annoy us with their buzzing. While scientists have ...

The wing of a fruit fly, viewed against a white background, looks very ordinary. It is transparent, with no obvious colours except for some small brownish spots. But looks can be deceptive. If you put ...

Different insects flap their wings in different manners. Understanding the variations between these modes of flight may help scientists design better and more efficient flying robots in the future.

A closer look at seemingly drab, transparent insect wings has revealed realms of previously unappreciated color, visible to the naked eye yet overlooked for centuries. Until now, the wing colors of ...