Ultraviolet quickly than violet light itself. He called them "oxidizing rays" to emphasize chemical reactivity and to distinguish them from "heat rays", discovered the previous year at the other end of the visible spectrum. The simpler term "chemical rays" was adopted shortly thereafter, and it remained popular throughout the 19th century, although there were those who held that these were an entirely different sort of radiation from light (notably John William Draper, who named them "tithonic rays"). The terms chemical rays and heat rays were eventually dropped in favor of ultraviolet and infrared radiation, respectively. In 1878 the sterilizing effect of
Ultraviolet communication in butterflies the pterins absorb the ultraviolet light. Thus, butterflies are able to reflect ultraviolet light as a result of the organization and composition of their wing scales resulting in thin layer constructive interference and can absorb ultraviolet through the action of pterin pigments. Butterflies receive ultraviolet signals by utilizing a special photoreceptor pigment in the butterfly eye. The butterfly eye is similar to the average insect eye in that it is composed of numerous ommatidia. Each butterfly ommatidium contains nine photoreceptors with generally each photoreceptor utilizing a single visual pigment. A UV sensitive visual pigment is responsible for a butterfly’s ability