How Insects Got Their Wings

Throughout the history of evolution, endless species have adopted multiple physiological and behavioral characteristics to increase their survival and reproduction rates. Insects, for instance, are hypothesized to develop flying appendages such as wings to allow them to compete with other animals in their surroundings for potential mates or protect themselves against dangerous predators. According to past fossil records, ancestors of modern-day living creatures called silverfish have populated Planet Earth approximately 400 million years ago. A sixty-five million year gap in the fossil record only gives biologists fossils of insects with or without wings dating around 325 million years ago. Because of the lack of evidence showing the developmental intermediate stage of the insect wing, the main issue of how exactly insects have managed to adopt these anatomical structures is still a debated topic in the scientific community till this very day (Grom, 2009).

One specific group of insects from the Order Lepidoptera did not appear in the ecological scene until recently; with its earliest fossil dating back around 60 million years ago during the Tertiary Period. Being members of the Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Arthropoda, Class Insecta, and Order Lepidoptera, butterflies are generally broken into two Suborders called Hterocera and Rhopalocera. Despite having different shaped-wings and antennae, butterflies from these sub-orders are both known for displaying their beautiful wings with multi-dimensional colors and patterns. Although humans usually only appreciate butterflies’ wings for their beauty, scientists who study the coloring patterns of these insects are less concerned about their aesthetics and more interested in the de...

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