Yellow Eye Color Mutant in Trichoplusia ni (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Abstract

A yellow-eyed mutant adult occurred as a spontaneous mutation in a laboratory culture of cabbage loopers, Trichoplusia ni (Hübner). The wild-type adults have gray-brown compound eyes. No other differences from the wild-type were detected in the external characteristics of the mutant phenotype. Internally, the wild-type male has brightly colored brick-red testes, and the mutant has white testes. The mutant, designated bagheera, is a simple Mendelian autosomal recessive with complete penetrance. Mutants have less than normal amounts of the ommochrome dihydroxyxanthommatin in their heads, indicating a possible defect in the pathway from tryptophan to xanthommatin.