Weevil (Eupholus quintaenia) | Papua, Indonesia (New Guinea)

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With the color blue being so rare in nature, it’s an obvious choice if you want to really stand out from the crowd. The incredible coloration of this Eupholus weevil from the rainforests of New Guinea probably warns of its toxicity to predators, but in fact it actually possesses no blue pigment at all. Tiny scales which cover the beetle’s shell contain three-dimensional photonic crystal structures that refract light in a similar fashion to that of an opal stone. Papua, Indonesia (New Guinea).

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Keywords: Coleoptera, Cucujiformia, Curculionidae, Curculionoidea, Entiminae, Eupholini, Indonesia, Insecta, Irian Jaya, New Guinea, Papua, Polyphaga, Southeast Asia, Western New Guinea, animal, aposematic coloration, arthropod, beetle, broad-nosed weevil, defense, display, fauna, insect, invertebrate, snout beetle, tropical, warning color, weevil
Contained in galleries: New Guinea, Insects

$With the color blue being so rare in nature, it’s an obvious choice if you want to really stand out from the crowd. The incredible coloration of this Eupholus weevil from the rainforests of New Guinea probably warns of its toxicity to predators, but in fact it actually possesses no blue pigment at all. Tiny scales which cover the beetle’s shell contain three-dimensional photonic crystal structures that refract light in a similar fashion to that of an opal stone. Papua, Indonesia (New Guinea).$

Chien C. Lee