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Mila'sExotic Plants & CuriositiesA living collection by Luminary OdditiesLuminary Oddities · Natural history & art
Sternocera aequisignata
Coleoptera / Buprestidae
Sternocera aequisignata is a metallic jewel beetle whose predominantly green shell can also reflect blue, purple and warmer hues. Experiments using its wing covers show that iridescent colour changes can make a target harder for predators to detect.
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Sternocera aequisignata Saunders, 1866 is a buprestid beetle. Museums Victoria’s named voucher from northern Thailand anchors the species account. [1]
Green dominates the iridescent exoskeleton, but blue, purple and orange can appear under different viewing conditions. Magnification reveals a conspicuously pitted surface on the wing covers. [2]
The Museums Victoria specimen was collected at Fang in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on 16 August 1972. [1]
The colours arise from light interacting with microscopic multilayer reflectors in the wing covers. In a woodland experiment, iridescent wing-cover targets suffered fewer bird attacks than non-iridescent controls. A separate human-search experiment found the iridescent targets harder to detect, supporting camouflage as a protective mechanism. [3]
In a controlled feeding experiment, inexperienced domestic chicks were less likely to choose iridescent targets for their first attack than static-colour targets. Each target paired a real or printed wing cover with a mealworm. [4]
Jewel-beetle wing covers were used as luminous inlays in South Asian paintings. The Metropolitan Museum’s conservation research recreated thinning and shaping techniques that preserve the reflective outer layers while reducing the thicker inner material. [2]
Keep the enclosure closed and display it in indirect light, away from heat and damp conditions. Handle the frame by its edges and clean only its exterior according to the maker’s instructions.
Museums Victoria · Accessed 2026-10-11
The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Accessed 2026-10-11
Kjernsmo and colleagues; Current Biology 30, 551–555.e 3 (2020) · Accessed 2026-10-11
Kjernsmo, Lim, Middleton, Hall, Costello, Whitney, Scott-Samuel and Cuthill; Animal Behaviour 188, 45–50 (2022) · Accessed 2026-10-11
Sources checked 2026-10-11. Illustrations · Luminary Oddities.
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