Natures wonders: butterfly wing temperature controls (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, January 28, 2020, 19:26 (1759 days ago) @ David Turell

An amazingly complex system:

https://phys.org/news/2020-01-wings-butterflies.html

"Contrary to common belief that butterfly wings consist primarily of lifeless membranes, the new study demonstrated that they contain a network of living cells whose function requires a constrained range of temperatures for optimal performance. Given their small thermal capacity, wings can overheat rapidly in the sun when butterflies cease flight, and they can cool down too much during flight in a cold environment.

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"'Butterfly wings are essentially vector light-detecting panels by which butterflies can accurately determine the intensity and direction of sunlight, and do this swiftly without using their eyes," says Nanfang Yu, associate professor of applied physics at Columbia Engineering and co-PI of the study.

"...they found that butterfly wings are loaded with a network of mechanical and temperature sensors. The living tissues in the wings are actively supplied by circulatory and tracheal systems throughout the adult lifetime—in the case of painted lady butterflies, for more than three weeks.

"They also discovered a "wing heart" that beats a few dozen times per minute to facilitate the directional flow of insect blood or hemolymph through a "scent pad" or an androconial organ located on the wings of some species of butterflies. "Most of the research on butterfly wings has focused on colors used in signaling between individuals," says Pierce., "This work shows that we should reconceptualize the butterfly wing as a dynamic, living structure rather than as a relatively inert membrane. Patterns observed on the wing may also be shaped in important ways by the need to modulate temperatures of living parts of the wing."

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"The team discovered that the insects use their wings to sense the direction and intensity of sunlight—the main source of warmth or overheating—and to respond with specialized behaviors to prevent overheating or overcooling of their wings. For example, all species studied exhibited a relatively constant "trigger" temperature of approximately 40 C (104 F), turning within a few seconds to avoid overheating of wings from a small light spot shone upon them.

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"'Each wing of a butterfly is equipped with a few dozen mechanical sensors that provide real-time feedback to enable complex flying patterns," Yu says."

Comment: Remembering that butterflies have different molting stages of life and to evolve setting up such fine mechanisms to control the wings response to temperature changes implies it had to be designed. For wings to work the processes of control had to appear all at once in the butterfly stage of life. No Darwinian stages of design by natural selection can achieve this degree of complexity. Designer needed, required.