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How do butterfly's get different color patterns on it?
Butterflies actually get their colors from two different sources: ordinary (or pigmented) color and structural color. The ordinary color comes from normal chemical pigments that absorb certain wavelengths of light and reflect others.
  Most butterflies get their different shades of brown and yellow from melanin. This type of color stems from the specific structure of the butterflies' wings.  This quality of changing colors as you, the observer, moves is known as iridescence, and it occurs more in nature.  It happens when light passes through a transparent, multilayered surface and is reflected more than once. The multiple reflections compound one another and intensify colors.
(Light and waves also plays a key role in colours.
The phase of the two waves is different by some multiple of one full wavelength, the two waves are said to have constructive interference. If the two waves differ by half a wavelength or an odd multiple of that, they have destructive interference).

Constructive interference is what happens in iridescence. It causes the two waves to complement each other and strengthen the reflection. The effects of iridescence create much more intense colors than ordinary pigments ever could.


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