Main.SideBar: |
Main /
ScarabéesPlusiotis gloriosaExtrait de mes correspondances avec Jean-Marc F. au sujet de Plusiotis gloriosa Chiral creation in nature “Look at dung beetles. Under natural light, they look shiny grey to mate black. Nothing much changes when they are viewed under right circularly polarized light. But what happens when you illuminate them with left-circularly polarized light, the bugs acquire a distinct green shine” in Alex Vitkin, “Polarized light and the asymmetry of life”, Optics and Photonics News, p.33, July 1996 He gives a reference to Kattawar. On the “secret compass” of the bee, see the account of the Austrian biologist Von Frisch meeting Edwin Land when visiting the USA, returning to Austria with a “polaroid filter”, interposing such a filter between a dancer bee and the part of blue sky visible to it: the bee reoriented her dance. Light coming from the sun is unpolarized, but a net polarization results from molecular scattering. From the bee point of view, the light scattered to it from any point in the sky will be polarized perpendicular to the line linking that point to the sun. As a result, the pattern of polarized light in the sky will encircle the sun. In chapter 7, pp. 138-151, in James L. Gould and Carol Grant Gould, “The honey bee”, Scientific American Library, 1988. ISBN 0-7167-5023-6 Here is a list of other articles on interferential colors and chiral colors: Polarization properties of Scarabaeidae, D.H. Goldstein, Appl. Opt. 45 (2006) A. Vitkin, “Polarized light and the asymmetry of life”, Optics and Photonics News, p.30-33, July 1996 G.T. Kattawar, “ A Search for Circular Polarization in Nature”, Optics and Photonics News, 9, 42-43, 1994 I really would like to make a nice print of these two articles. Unfortunately, when I go to the OSA site, the archives for OPN goes back only to 1991. It is not possible to get a pdf file for these articles.; they want 15 $ for one reprint, which I find to be ridiculous. T.F. Anderson and A.G. Richards, "An electron microscope study of some structural colors of insects", j. Appl. Phys., 13, 748-758, (1942) Dietrich Mossakowski, “Reflection measurements used in the analysis of structural colours of beetles”, J. of microscopy, 116, Pt 3, pp. 351-364, Aug.1979 R.B. Morris, “Iridescence from diffraction structures in the wing scales of Callophrys rubi, the Green Hairstreak, J. Ent. (A) 49 (2), pp. 149-154, 1975 M.F. Land, “the physics and biology of animal reflectors”, Prog. Biophysics – Molec. Biol. 24, 75-106, 1972 A.C. Neville and S. Caveney, “ Scarabaeid beetle exocuticle as an optical analogue of cholesteric liquid crystals”, Biol. Rev., 44, pp. 531- 562, 1969 A.A. Michelson, “On metallic colouring in bird and insects”, Phil. Mag. 21, pp. 554-567, 1911 A.A. Michelson, chapter XV, “Metallic colors in birds and insects”, pp. 167-174, in “Studies in Optics”, Dover, 1975 J. L. Gould and C. Grant Gould, “The honey bee”, Chapter 7, pp. 138-151, Scientific American Library, 1988 Beetles Most chances to get a circularly polarized beetle is to search in the family of Coleopteran (scarab) Ken Brecher (un astronome de BU) bought his big bug at “Evolution”, which is a natural history store located in the SoHo in Manhattan: Tel: 212 343 1114 His bug is a flower beetle, named: ajesprata semperi, and comes from Indonesia. It’s about 2”1/2 long and is left handled circularly polarized. When buying a bug, one should have a circular polarizer to find out if the bug polarizes light or not. Circularly polarizing bugs are mostly scarabs. The Museum of Science in Boston has a few nicely framed insects. Boxes costs between 70 and 160 $, depending of species. The scientific names of those bugs is printed on the bottom of the frame, nor the common name. The Harvard Museum of Natural History shop has sometimes framed insects. Follow J’ai acheté mes insectes à “Combined Scientific Supplies”, I ordered the following items: Plusiotis gloriosa (coughts in Fort Davis, TX): ce sont ceux-là que tu as vu (une grosse femelle et un plus petit male) J’ai également un Ajesprata semperi (about 5 cm long) I noticed on some web sites the following interesting items: Vu chez http://iannibutterfly.net/merchant.ihtml?pid=1367&step=4 Megaloxantha nigricornis (Thailand) 6.0 cm
Male
Category: Beetles : Dynastidae : Eupatorus beccari (PNG) 6+ cm
Male
Category: Beetles : Rutelids : Chrysophora chrysochlora MF (Peru) 35mm
Female/Male Pair
Absolutely brilliant! Metallic Christmas green with sapphire blue legs and feet!!!
The set of 5 green beetles with extremely shiny metallic colors at the Museum of Science costs $80. It presents Chrysochroa Rajah (C’est peut-etre le Chrysochroa fulminans? Il y a beaucoup de sortes de chrysochroa) Chez http://www.insect-sale.com: Seen at http://www.buginabox.com : A great web site is : http://butterflywebsite.com/sponsors/sponsordisplay.cfm?product=whole lists an impressive number of web sites related to butterfly and insect sales. Other interesting sites where to buy bugs and butterflies: |