Can butterfly wings make you blind?

It’s been a long-held belief that butterfly wings contain powder-like substance that can make a person blind.

On Wednesday’s “Kuya Kim Ano Na?” on “24 Oras,” butterfly collector or lepidopterist Dr. Aimee Lyn Barrion-Dupo said the particles were in fact wing scales.

“’Yung mga pulbos sa pakpak ng paru-paro, halos pareho lang din ng epekto ng alikabok ’pag pumasok sa ating mga mata. Maaaring mangati. ’Pag kinamot, maaaring magkasugat o impeksyon pero hindi naman ito nakakabulag,” she said.

Meanwhile, butterflies are believed to have two wings. This is false, because these creatures have four—two on each side.

In 2020, biologist Jade Badon discovered a new butterfly species while he was hiking at Mt. Talinis in Negros Oriental.

He named the yellow, black, and white colored butterfly Appias phoebe nuydai after lepidopterist and painter Justin “Tiny” Nuyda.

One of the world’s most beautiful butterflies, meanwhile, is the blue morpho butterfly, which can be found in the rainforests of Central and South America.

Below its blue wings that sparkle in the sun is a brown hue which proves useful for camouflage. – Franchesca Viernes/RC, GMA News