You may think that all butterflies have colorful wings, no actually not all butterflies have colorful wings, butterflies such as the glasswing butterfly have transparent wings. So today from this article you can find information about the glasswing butterfly. Greta oto or the glasswing butterfly has transparent wings. It is nearly invisible.
The glasswing is so named because of its gloriously transparent wings. It's brown border makes the wings more visible. The upper part of the forewing also has a white stripe through the brown region. Glasswings lack the tiny scales on most of their wings that give other butterflies and moths their colors, so the wings are, literally, see-through. It is very hard for the eye to follow as the butterfly dodges between understory plants among patches of light and shadow.
These are hard to spot even when the caterpillars are undergoing metamorphosis: they transform into small pupae with a chrome-silver color that masks them as, perhaps, water glistening in droplets on stems. These pupae look like small mirrors, which is why they are called espejitos in Costa Rica.
Adults have scaly antennae and an elegantly thin, brown body powering the delicate, clear wings (the veins in their wings are visible). Males have an additional feature to their wings: on the hind wing is a small plume of fine hairs that stay tucked under the overlap of the forewing most of the time. These become helpful in courtship. Sparse, spindly scales and a waxy membrane coating are behind it's transparency. They use their wings as camouflage to protect themselves from predators. To find out more information about cool and exciting animals check out our other Article pages.