Gallery of Colorful Wings

News
By published
Closterocerus coffeellae
A female Closterocerus coffeellae, a fly collected in Colombia, looks drab against a white background and shines against black. (Image credit: E. Shevtsova/J. Kjaerandsen)

Hymenoptera on white background

(Image credit: E. Shevtsova/J. Kjaerandsen)

A common hymenoptera wasp on a white background.

Hymenoptera on black background

(Image credit: E. Shevtsova/J. Kjaerandsen)

Hymenoptera wasp against a dark background, revealing colorful wing patterns.

Plain hymenoptera wing

(Image credit: E. Shevtsova/J. Kjaerandsen)

A hymenoptera wasp wing on a white background.

Hymenoptera on black background

(Image credit: E. Shevtsova/J. Kjaerandsen)

The wing of a hymenoptera wasp on a black background.

Fruit fly wing

(Image credit: E. Shevtsova/J. Kjaerandsen)

A fruit fly against a black background reveals a rainbow-colored wing.

Fruit fly wing

(Image credit: E. Shevtsova/J. Kjaerandsen)

A fruit fly wing on a white background.

Fruit fly wing

(Image credit: E. Shevtsova/J. Kjaerandsen)

Against a black background, the fruit fly wing appears colorful.

Wing of a Shore Fly

(Image credit: E. Shevtsova/J. Kjaerandsen)

The wing of a common shore fly.

Shore fly wing color

(Image credit: E. Shevtsova/J. Kjaerandsen)

A shore fly wing hides a colorful pattern.

The wing of a fungus gnat looks brown and tan against a white background.

(Image credit: E. Shevtsova/J. Kjaerandsen)

The wing of a fungus gnat looks brown and tan against a white background.

In the right light, the fungus gnat wing is jewel-like.

(Image credit: E. Shevtsova/J. Kjaerandsen)

In the right light, the fungus gnat wing is jewel-like.

Stephanie Pappas
Stephanie Pappas
Live Science Contributor

Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. Stephanie received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. 

More about insects

'A relationship that could horrify Darwin': Mindy Weisberger on the skin-crawling reality of insect zombification

'The parasite was in the driver's seat': The zombie ants that die gruesome deaths fit for a horror movie

Diagnostic dilemma: A rash 'migrated' across a man's body from his anus
See more latest
Most Popular
Person holding a processor in gloved hands.
China's '2D' chip could soon be used to make silicon-free chips
A cat sleeping on a ship
Catquistadors: Oldest known domestic cats in the US died off Florida coast in a 1559 Spanish shipwreck
a diagram showing the Perseus galaxy cluster
Astronomers discover giant 'bridge' in space that could finally solve a violent galactic mystery
A lot of galaxies are seen as bright spots on a dark background. Toward the left, the JWST is shown in an illustration.
James Webb Space Telescope finds a wild black hole growth spurt in galaxies at 'cosmic noon'
A top down view of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's 1960s molten salt reactor experiment, an early precursor to the Chinese reactor.
'Rabbits sometimes make mistakes or grow lazy. That's when the tortoise seizes its chance': Chinese scientists make nuclear power breakthrough using abandoned US research
A crowd of people in Sants train station in Barcelona, Spain.
What is 'induced atmospheric vibration' and did it really cause power outages across Spain and Portugal?
Grand Prismatic Spring, Midway Geyser, Yellowstone.
Yellowstone holds potentially untapped cache of 'carbon-free' helium for rockets, reactors and superconductors
Rig shark on a black background
Do sharks make noises? An accidental discovery might just answer that question
an illustration of a satellite
China uses 'gravitational slingshots' to save 2 satellites that were stuck in the wrong orbit for 123 days
An image of the Circinus West molecular cloud
Scientists spot a 'dark nebula' being torn apart by rowdy infant stars — offering clues about our own solar system's past