Electromagnetic Field Analysis of a Film Imitating the Green lacewing wings

Abstract Insects possess a variety of functions, and some functions have been studied, too date. In particular, it was revealed that microstructures on the wings of cicadas and dragonflies, have various functions, such as anti-reflectivity and water repellence. We are focusing on the microstructure of green lacewing wing. We previously found that the wings of a green lacewing have numerous microscopic protuberances, mainly composed of oil and fat, which prevent the reflection of light, revealed by a spectroscopic experiment and a transfer matrix method [1]. However, it is still unclear how light travels through the wings of a green lacewing. In this study, we used the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method, a computational method based on Maxwell's equations, to calculate the behavior of light. A software Open-FDTD Version 2.6.0 was used for the calculations.  FDTD simulation results indicated that the surface protuberances of a green lacewing wing increased and decreased the intensity of the transmitted and reflected light, respectively, which was an antireflection behavior [2]. This is a good agreement with our previous study.