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Glasswing Butterfly

legendary

Glasswing Butterfly

Greta oto

Habitat
Cloud forests, Central & South America
Wingspan
61 mm
Order
Lepidoptera · Nymphalidae

Weird but real

Its wings are 90% transparent. Predators can see right through them.

Why it's cool

Skipped the colored-scales arms race and chose invisibility instead. Pure aerial ghost.

Photographs

A glasswing butterfly in the Pacific Science Center's Tropical Butterfly House.
The Modern Polymath · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
For my birthday treat we went to the Edinburgh Butterfly & Insect World outside Edinburgh. I got to try out my new Kirk macro flash bracket. It was excellent fun and the flash bracket worked a treat.
marsupium photography · CC BY-SA 2.0 · source