Glasswing
Greta oto
Glasswing · Carlsbad · 7 March 2026
A Glasswing on a leaf in the butterfly house, the clear panels catching the light. In its native Central American cloud forest it flies low in the shade, and the transparency is the whole point.
The clear panels are real gaps in the scale coverage, not a trick of the light. The membrane underneath is bare and faintly iridescent, which is why the effect shifts as the angle changes, and it seems to reduce glare and make the butterfly harder for a bird to fix a strike on mid-flight - a defence built entirely out of not being there.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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