Image

Butterfly wings are covered with scales

Close up image of a butterfly wing covered with scales

Butterflies belong to the order Lepidoptera. Lepidoptera comes from the Greek ‘lepis’ (meaning scale) and ‘petron’ (meaning wing). Each wing is covered by thousands of tiny scales.

Rights: Mr Raul Gonzalez, 2005 Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition
Published:16 May 2010Size: 493.92 KB