Findings suggest that iridescence provides camouflage independent of glossiness, which means that it is the colour of iridescent surfaces and its changeability, that is the most important aspect of iridescence in enabling camouflage.
Iridescence is a type of structural colouration that produces bright, vibrant hues. These are often angle-dependent, meaning the observed colour appears to change depending on the viewing angle.
Now the team plan to further explore why so many beetle species are glossy, given it is detrimental to their survival when combined with iridescence.
They will also look at why black targets seem to survive well (second behind iridescence), the effects of background gloss and how lighting conditions affect how iridescence and gloss are perceived.
Paper: ‘Interactions between colour and gloss in iridescent camouflage’ by Dylan Thomas et al. in Behavioural Ecology.