Field Studies Council Virtual Meet Up: Damien Leech -Origins of Colouration in Invertebrates (watch online)

Thu 04, June 2020 14:30 – 15:45

Origins of Colouration in Invertebrates – Pigment and Structure

Damien’s talk is available to watch online here on the FSC Biodiversity Projects Youtube Channel.

Damien Leech will be the guest speaker in this VMU, he is a Research Associate at the Centre for Fine Print Research (University of the West of England), with a background in material science and physics.
Colour/pattern recognition is a common cornerstone of animal identification, however, the processes by which animals actually display colour is incredibly complex. Beyond the simple pigmented systems, that also form the basis of our paints and inks, the natural world commonly utilises sophisticated nanoscale architectures that selectively interact with incoming light and produce colours that glimmer and vary with viewing angle. In this talk, we discuss some of the origins of colouration in invertebrates, the common structures and materials that compose them and why these colours are so striking and often iridescent.