Photographer
Jan Michels
THESE colourful and startlingly detailed appendages may look otherworldly, but they are actually proboscises, straw-like butterfly mouthparts used for feeding.
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The images were taken by Jan Michels at the University of Kiel, Germany, co-author of a recent study (Functional Ecology, ).
He created the picture by stitching together multiple images taken using confocal laser scanning microscopy, an optical imaging technique that reveals the tiny intricacies of the proboscis by using mirrors to direct a laser beam across the field of view.
The research showed that flower-feeding butterflies have a smoother, more tapered and less bendable proboscis than species that don’t feed on flowers. This allows the flower-feeders to penetrate nearly twice as deep.
Michels and his colleagues tested how well both types of butterfly could use their proboscis to enter funnel-shaped glass tubes filled with a sugar solution. They found that non-flower-feeding individuals, such as mourning cloaks (Nymphalis antiopa), tended to get their mouthparts stuck 90 per cent of the time, while flower-feeding species like the eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) never got them stuck.
The work reveals how evolution shaped butterfly proboscises to allow some species to be able to feed via narrow floral tubes easily and efficiently.
