Pourquoi les cicadelles réfléchissent-elles peu la lumière ? | EntomoNews | Scoop.it
From www.pourlascience.fr - April 26, 6:14 AM
Le corps de ces petits insectes est recouvert de structures nanoscopiques, des brochosomes. On s’attendrait à ce qu’ils augmentent la réflexion de la lumière, mais ils ont l’effet inverse. Ce paradoxe vient d’être compris.

 

Biophysique

Charlotte Mauger
26 avril 2024
Pour la Science N° 559
 
 
[Image] Leafhopper and its brochosomes. (A) An optical image of a leafhopper Gyponana serpenta. (B) A scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of the leafhopper wing (highlighted area in panel A). (C and D) SEM images of brochosomes on the leafhopper wing, revealing their hollow buckyball-like geometry. (E) An SEM image showing the cross-section of a natural brochosome cleaved by the focused ion beam (FIB) technique. (F) The relationship between the diameter of brochosome through-holes and the diameter of brochosomes across different leafhopper species. Brochosome diameter and hole diameter were determined from our experimental measurements and a literature source (18). The fitted dashed line indicates that the through-hole diameters are approximately 28% of the corresponding brochosome diameters