How the Snake Lost Its Legs fly embryo. His books on evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) include "Imaginal Discs: The Genetic and Cellular Logic of Pattern Formation" (2002), "Quirks of Human Anatomy: An Evo-Devo Look at the Human Body" (2009), and "Deep Homology? Uncanny Similarities of Humans and Flies Uncovered by Evo-Devo" (2017). In Held's view, "Quirks", "Snake", and "Deep Homology" form a trilogy on evo-devo. "How the Snake Lost Its Legs" is ostensibly organised into six chapters, but in effect into three parts. The first chapter serves as an introduction and overview. The next four chapters provide what Held calls "the meatier aspects of evo-devo" with
Butterfly scale-covered wings, which give the Lepidoptera their name (Ancient Greek λεπίς lepís, scale + πτερόν pterón, wing). These scales give butterfly wings their colour: they are pigmented with melanins that give them blacks and browns, as well as uric acid derivatives and flavones that give them yellows, but many of the blues, greens, reds and iridescent colours are created by structural coloration produced by the micro-structures of the scales and hairs. As in all insects, the body is divided into three sections: the head, thorax, and abdomen. The thorax is composed of three segments, each with a pair of legs.