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[Kenelm Philip]

> A book on irridescence in nature describes scales on wings like Morpho
> as each one being somewhat transparent but each one being "christmas"
> tree in shape.

THat book may be "The Splendor of Iridescence: Structural Colors in the
Animal World' by Hilda Simon (Dodd, Mead 1971).

	The blue iridescence in _Morpho_ is produced by interference in
light scattered from the 'branches' in the 'christmas tree' structures
on the scale surface--the branches act as diffraction gratings. There
is also brown pigment within the scales, which accounts for the underlying
brown coloration when the light passes through the wing, or reflects off
the wing surface at very low angles.

							Ken Philip
fnkwp at uaf.edu