Orientation-dependent photonic bandgaps in gold-dust weevil scales and their titania bioreplicates

• Norma Salvadores Farran,
• Limin Wang,
• Primoz Pirih and
• Bodo D. Wilts

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2025, 16, 1–10, doi:10.3762/bjnano.16.1

• 10.3762/bjnano.16.1 Abstract The scales of the gold-dust weevil Hypomeces squamosus are green because of three-dimensional diamond-type chitin–air photonic crystals with an average periodicity of about 430 nm and a chitin fill fraction of about 0.44. A single scale usually contains one to three

• customizable photonic bandgaps that might be used in novel optical materials. Keywords: animal coloration; photonic crystal; polarization conversion; sol–gel replication; weevil; Introduction Animal coloration is produced by means of absorption, scattering, luminescence, and interference. The latter is

• complex biological structures and obtaining photonic crystals with desired optical properties [23][24]. In this work, we characterized natural photonic crystals found in the scales of the gold-dust weevil, Hypomeces squamosus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae; Herbst 1795), a pest of several crops [25][26][27