Simulation Model for the Structural Color in Morpho Didius Wings

Optical metamaterials enable precise manipulation of light by exploiting subwavelength structural features, offering a pathway to tune color without pigments. Here, we investigate the nanostructured architecture of Morpho didius butterfly wings to elucidate the mechanisms underpinning iridescent structural coloration. Using multi-physics finite-element simulations and optimized reconstructions, we confirm the emergence of structural color and systematically analyze its dependence on nanostructured configurations. The findings demonstrate that by scaling these architectures, the entire visible spectrum can be reproduced, extending beyond the characteristic blue and green hues. Thereby upscaling of the Morpho didius wing structure leads to reflectance maxima at larger wavelengths (red-shift) and downscaling consequently shifts the reflectance maxima to smaller wavelengths (blue-shift).