Many butterflies appear to have ‘fur’ especially on their bodies. Appollos are good examples. This fur is I assume composed of elongate scales. But what purpose(s) does it serve? Thermoregulation? If so what is the physics going on?
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That is a very good question @GilesR !! Maybe @mlarrivee or anybody from the Montreal Insectarium could give us some more specific answers about this.
For what I’ve seen, butterflies that endure colder weathers tend to be more hairy, although that is just an empirical observation. Also moths tend to be quite hairy, and in addition to thermoregulation, they are hairy to dampen echolocation sounds emitted by bats, making them harder to catch; not sure if maybe butterflies are hairy because they share this evolutionary trait with moths.