Photo of the Day 28 September 2007


Blue Morpho Butterfly, 1996
Photograph by Cary Wolinsky

A close-up of a mounted blue morpho butterfly shows its unique iridescent sheen. These mesmerizing insects, indigenous to the rain forests of Central and South America, get their cobalt hue not from pigment but from the thousands of semitransparent scales that filter blue from the visible spectrum and radiate it out from the wings.