Chrysochroa buqueti II

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Sun May 04, 2014 1:59 pm

Chrysochroa buqueti (Metallic woodborer beetle, “Jewel Beetle”).

I had posted a couple of other images of this beetle back in October.

Detail of carapace. Shows iridescent color pattern caused by structural color. This is created by nanostructures in the surface of the carapace.

Nikon MM-11 microscope, Mitutoyo 5/0.14 M Plan Apo objective, Olympus U-SWTR-3, Canon T3i camera.

The section in this second picture fascinated me. It is a very small area on the bottom of the head, just behind the mouth. Just seemed like an odd place for such a dramatic "color show"... after all who/what would ever see it!?
Nikon MM-11 microscope, Olympus 20/0.40 LMPLFL N objective, Olympus U-SWTR-3, Canon T3i camera.

Pau · Post by **Pau** » Sun May 04, 2014 2:20 pm

Charles, nice to see you posting true masterpieces again!

Charles Krebs wrote:The section in this second picture fascinated me. It is a very small area on the bottom of the head, just behind the mouth. Just seemed like an odd place for such a dramatic "color show"... after all who/what would ever see it!?

Not all features of living beings have a direct adaptative function. Maybe it could be just the expression of the same genes that control the general coloration of the more visible parts of the beast. The natural selection can not promote nor eliminate this character (adaptatively neutral).

Jacek · Post by **Jacek** » Mon May 05, 2014 12:02 am

sebba28 · Post by **sebba28** » Mon May 05, 2014 1:16 am

Beautiful.

piermicro · Post by **piermicro** » Mon May 05, 2014 2:14 am

Very, very nice.

carlos.uruguay · Post by **carlos.uruguay** » Mon May 05, 2014 6:49 am

Impressive

_Michal_ · Post by **_Michal_** » Mon May 05, 2014 1:10 pm

Fantastic

Lothar-Gutjahr · Post by **Lothar-Gutjahr** » Mon May 05, 2014 2:22 pm

Thank you Charles,

CHAPEAU, i stick with the words of Pau.!

Thanks for sharing this impressive work.

Lothar

Jean-marc · Post by **Jean-marc** » Mon May 05, 2014 2:39 pm

woaaa !

JM

Sumguy01 · Post by **Sumguy01** » Mon May 05, 2014 7:35 pm

very interesting, love the colors.
Thanks for sharing

harisA · Post by **harisA** » Tue May 06, 2014 1:18 am

Second image is amazing.
I was wondering how lmplanfl performs against mits 20x plan apo?

pwnell · Post by **pwnell** » Tue May 13, 2014 2:10 pm

Both are great but the second one is almost alien like in how unnatural it looks like. As you said - makes you wonder why the need for iridescence if nobody sees it? Maybe during courting?

vasselle · Post by **vasselle** » Wed May 21, 2014 9:33 pm

Beautifful