Centro de Investigación en Biología Celular y Molecular, Universidad de Costa Rica, 11501, San Pedro de Montes de Oca, Costa Rica.
Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica, 11501, San Pedro de Montes de Oca, Costa Rica.
Sci Rep. 2020 Jan 29;10(1):1418. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-58301-2.
Coloration in insects provides a fruitful opportunity for interdisciplinary research involving both physics and biology, and for a better understanding of the design principles of biological structures. In this research we used nanometric and micrometric analyses to investigate the morphological and mechanical properties of the black-orange-black (BOB) color pattern in scelionid wasps, which has never been studied. The primary objective of the present investigation was to explore the structural and mechanical differences in the mesoscutum of four species: Baryconus with an orange mesosoma (i.e. BOB pattern), all black Baryconus, Scelio with an orange mesosoma (i.e. BOB pattern), and all black Scelio. The most outstanding findings include the absence of multilayer structures that generate structural color, a pigment concentrated in the upper surface of the epicuticle, and surprising differences between the four species. Three of the four species showed an accordion-like structure in the furrow (notaulus), whereas the adjacent mesoscutum was different in each species. Moreover, the normalized color component spectra for blue, green and red colors of the black mesoscutum of each genus showed the same spectral dependence while the orange color manifested small changes in the dominant wavelength, resulting in slightly different orange tones.
昆虫的颜色为涉及物理学和生物学的跨学科研究提供了丰富的机会，也为更好地理解生物结构的设计原则提供了机会。在这项研究中，我们使用纳米级和微米级分析来研究从未研究过的革翅目蜂类的黑-橙-黑（BOB）颜色图案的形态和机械特性。本研究的主要目的是探索四种物种中中胸盾片的结构和机械差异：具有橙色中胸（即 BOB 图案）的 Baryconus 、全黑的 Baryconus 、具有橙色中胸（即 BOB 图案）的 Scelio 、全黑的 Scelio 。最显著的发现包括不存在产生结构色的多层结构，色素集中在上表皮的表面，以及四个物种之间令人惊讶的差异。四个物种中有三个在凹槽（notaulus）中显示出手风琴状结构，而相邻的中胸盾片在每个物种中都不同。此外，每个属的黑色中胸盾片的蓝色、绿色和红色的归一化颜色分量光谱显示出相同的光谱依赖性，而橙色则表现出主波长的微小变化，导致橙色色调略有不同。
