In the orignial post on Bionet.general
>>>colinc at cix.compulink.co.uk ("Colin Cracknell") wrote:
>>>>>> As a child I used to wonder why big fat flies were known as bluebottles,
>>> when they were black. As time went on, I saw occasional blue ones, but
>>> almost all seemed to be black. (stuff deleted)
>>> My current working hypothesis is that the colour is in some way
>>> temperature-dependent. (more stuff deleted)
>>> Has any serious work been done on this? What is the
>>> metallic pigment in Calliphoridae anyway?
>>mike at biu.icnet.uk (Mike Mitchell) replied:
>>>> The pigment may not be a pigment after all. Many butterflies have
>> similar metallic sheens, but this is caused by the scales
>> on their wings. I understand that these scales polarise light.
>> Of course this could be completely wrong!
This sounds reasonable to me. I wonder if we can get the expert opinion of
an Entomologist to set us straight ?
**********************************
* Charles T. Faulkner *
* Univ of Tennessee, Knoxville *
* (ctfaulkn at utkvx.utk.edu) *
*********************************
