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Temporal occurrence of the pupal melanization reducing factor during development of the butterfly, Inachis io
Author(s) -
STARNECKER G.,
BÜCKMANN D.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
physiological entomology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.693
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1365-3032
pISSN - 0307-6962
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3032.1997.tb01142.x
Subject(s) - biology , suboesophageal ganglion , nymphalidae , pupa , instar , lepidoptera genitalia , thoracic ganglia , ganglion , period (music) , larva , anatomy , botany , physics , acoustics
Abstract. . In prepupae of Inachis io L. (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), a pupal melanization reducing factor (PMRF) which controls morphological colour adaptation (Bückmann & Maisch, 1987) is located in the brain, suboesophageal ganglion, thoracic ganglia, and all abdominal ganglia and their closely associated neurohaemal organs (Stamecker et al , 1994) In animals adapted to a yellow background, PMRF content decreased in all these ganglia complexes during the prepupal stage which may be due to a release of the hormone at the critical period of the melanization reducing effect. The release of PMRF apparently occurs in a slow, but continuous, manner and may be superimposed by an incessant PMRF production at the same time recognizable by reincreasing melanization scores towards the end of prepupal and beginning of pupal stage. Therefore PMRF content in ganglia were not completely exhausted. When animals were kept on a black background, such a decline of PMRF content did not occur in both posterior ganglia complexes, whereas values from brain‐suboesophageal ganglion complexes were too variable. The target cells seem to be sensitive to PMRF treatment over a wide time range of nearly 20 h from the early stage of spinning a silk mat to 13‐h‐old prepupae for the melanization reducing effect. PMRF activity was also detected in first‐instar larvae and in the nervous system of third‐instar larvae as well as in pupae which had completed their pigmentation. Furthermore, all three parts of the adult body still contained PMRF. Possibly PMRF may have functions in larval and adult stages in addition to its effect on morphological colour adaptation.