Coloration and structure of Taiwanese bronze scarab (Anomala expansa)

Abstract

The structure and optical properties of the elytra of Taiwanese bronze scarabs (Anomala expansa) were investigated. The elytron is composed by a scale-like texture on the surface and a repeated bi-layers underneath. The reflectivity spectrum shows iridescence that the peaks shifts from yellow to green color regions as long as the incident angle (θ) increases. A shoulder peak at 600 nm (θ = 20o) is absent after gently scraping the surface, which indicates that the yellow color is contributed by the scale-like texture. The remaining peak at 550 nm (θ = 20o) in the spectrum resembles the simulated spectrum by assuming the refractive index of n = 1.54 and n = 1 for the adjacent bi-layered structure. This implies that the multi-layered structure contributes to the green coloration as well as the iridescent effect.