Structurally assisted super black in colourful peacock spiders

Male peacock spiders ( Maratus , Salticidae) compete to attract female mates using elaborate, sexually selected displays. They evolved both brilliant colour and velvety black. Here, we use scanning electron microscopy, hyperspectral imaging and finite-difference time-domain optical modelling to investigate the deep black surfaces of peacock spiders. We found that super black regions reflect less than 0.5% of light (for a 30° collection angle) in Maratus speciosus (0.44%) and Maratus karrie (0.35%) owing to microscale structures. Both species evolved unusually high, tightly packed cuticular bumps (microlens arrays), and M. karrie has an additional dense covering of black brush-like scales atop the cuticle. Our optical models show that the radius and height of spider microlenses achieve a balance between (i) decreased surface reflectance and (ii) enhanced melanin absorption (through multiple scattering, diffraction out of the acceptance cone of female eyes and increased path length of light through absorbing melanin pigments). The birds of paradise (Paradiseidae), ecological analogues of peacock spiders, also evolved super black near bright colour patches. Super black locally eliminates white specular highlights, reference points used to calibrate colour perception, making nearby colours appear brighter, even luminous, to vertebrates. We propose that this pre-existing, qualitative sensory experience—‘sensory bias’—is also found in spiders, leading to the convergent evolution of super black for mating displays in jumping spiders.

Marine Flatworms

Marine Flatworms provides a fascinating introduction to the intriguing world of polyclad flatworms, a group of large, free-living marine Platyhelminthes, which are found throughout the world but are most colourful in tropical waters. Although not related to molluscs, they are often mistaken for sea slugs because of their brilliant colour patterns. Written in an accessible style by two leading experts in the field, this book explores flatworms’ unusual structure, feeding habits, their curious reproductive behaviour (including ‘penis fencing’), their mimicry and toxicology. With a foreword by Professor Reinhardt Kristensen of the Copenhagen Zoological Museum, Marine Flatworms is the first comprehensive guide to polyclad families and genera. It contains more than 300 colour photographs from every part of the world.

The formal opening of the Tercentenary Celebrations by Her Majesty The Queen, Patron, at the Royal Albert Hall on 19 July 1960

If some of the founding Fellows could have witnessed the opening ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall they would have observed a scene of pageantry and colour which would have vied with the ceremonial of their own days. They would have listened to a story that would have surpassed their wildest hopes. Special floral arrangements by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, provided the framework for the large company to be assembled on the platform of the vast elliptical building. Occupying a central position at the rear of the platform were the musicians of the Royal Military School of Music and the banners of the trumpeters added another touch of colour to the brightly illuminated scene. By 2.45 p.m. the general company numbering some 4,000 were seated and soon the processions in their academic robes began to move to their allotted seats. The first procession entering from the rear of the Hall consisted of Fellows led by those elected in 1960. Never before had so many Fellows from all the various parts of the Commonwealth and elsewhere in the world been assembled in one place. They occupied the seats adjoining both sides of the platform as well as most of the platform itself where the senior Fellows took their places forming in all an arc of brilliant colour. The second procession was led by the Foreign Members of the Society followed by representatives of Universities and Academies of Sciences from 50 countries and the representatives of international scientific organizations, all of whom took their places in the arena seats facing the platform. The Society’s Mace preceded the third procession consisting of past Officers of the Society and the members of Council. The Charter Book, a gift from the founder King Charles II, was carried in the rear of this procession and placed in position on a table on the platform. The removal of the Society’s Mace was the signal that the Royal Party had arrived. The Royal procession, Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Prince Philip with Their Majesties the King and Queen of Sweden, accompanied by the President, then took their seats on the platform. MESSAGGIO DELL’UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA Di Professor D. Graffi TRANSLATION OF THE MESSAGE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA By Professor D. Graffi MESSAGE DE CONGRATULATION DE L’ACADEMIE DES SCIENCES DE L’INSTITUT DE FRANCE De M. Jean Lecomte MESSAGE OF CONGRATULATION FROM THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE FRENCH INSTITUTE By M. Jean Lecomte MESSAGE OF CONGRATULATION FROM THE AUSTRALIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE By Sir John Eccles, F.R.S.

Masterpieces of Oriental Art. 14: Portrait of Shāh Daulat by Bichitr

This painting is a dignified example of Mughal Court art towards the middle of the seventeenth century, when portraiture was at its zenith, and, under Court influence, very much in fashion. Bichitr (a Hindu) was one of several accomplished painters of Shah Jahan's reign. He signs himself here “Servant of the Royal Court”, and his portrait of his master, done in 1632, is at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Several other works by him were included in the celebrated Imperial Album to which “Shah Daulat” belonged. This artist, whose works generally emphasized drawing and eschewed brilliant colour, sometimes painted genre subjects and liked to fill the backgrounds of his portraits with realistic detail. Here, however, he has concentrated on a single figure, and mainly on the face, which is drawn with rare feeling and expressive skill. The Saint, who was a revered Muhammedan religious leader under three Emperors, is an impressive figure, with his white robe and brown scarf set against an almost black background. His enormous hands hold a globe inscribed in Persian, “The Key of the Victory over the two Worlds is entrusted to thy hand”; this may typify the devotion of a not unworldly ecclesiastic to the Emperor.

3. Second Note on the Remarkable Sunsets

When I communicated my first note on this subject on the 21st of January last, the only definite conclusion I had then arrived at was that the very remarkable and brilliant colour effects, lately seen in the heavens at sunrise and sunset, were due to the presence of an unusual amount of dust at the time floating in our atmosphere.This atmospheric dust acts as a sifting medium, breaks up the white light into its components, and reflects all the different colours to us from different parts of the sky.