Nature's Magic Act

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

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Cyphochilus Beetle Scales, magnified (Cambridge University)

Mixing all our paint colors together—subtractive mixing—we can get very close to black (or a very muddy version of black), but mixing all the colors of light in the color spectrum creates white—additive color mixing.

The Cyphochilus beetle is one of the whitest insects in the world, with an exoskeleton covered in unusually bright white scales. It is thought to have evolved this camouflage in order to be less visible in the white fungus of the sugar cane plants it inhabits in southeast Asia.

There is no pigment in its scales, though. The Cyphochilus carapace, which is a fraction of the thickness of a very thin sheet of paper, is actually transparent. It has provided scientists with fascinating information that is used in understanding how to create whiter whites in manufacturing processes for paints and coatings.

Part of the the mystery of the Cyphochilus’s coloration is how its scales can b…