This Velvet Ant Provides New Insights Into Nature’s Ultrablack Secrets
New research has found an insect species with markings that are so black that they’re ‘superblack’ or ‘ultrablack’, absorbing nearly all visible and ultraviolet light.
Adult female Brazilian velvet ant, Traumatomutilla bifurca, shows off her superblack patches. (Credit: copyright: Nicole Desnoyers. Image appears here with kind permission.)
An international team of scientists recently published detailed studies of a Brazilian species of velvet ant that they discovered to have superblack, or ultrablack, patches.
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