A Text-book of Entomology: Including the Anatomy, Physiology, Embryology and Metamorphoses of Insects for Use in Agricultural and Technical Schools and Colleges as Well as by the Working EntomologistPackard, A. S. (Alpheus Spring)
Science
A Text-book of Entomology: Including the Anatomy, Physiology, Embryology and Metamorphoses of Insects for Use in Agricultural and Technical Schools and Colleges as Well as by the Working Entomologist
Packard, A. S. (Alpheus Spring)
Insects
A. G. Mayer believes that the pigments of the scales are derived from
the hæmolymph or blood of the pupa, for the following reasons: (1) He is
unable to find anything but blood within the scales during the time when
the pigment is formed. (2) In Lepidoptera generally the first color to
appear upon the pupal wings is a dull ochre-yellow, or drab, and this is
also the color assumed by the blood when it is removed from the pupa and
exposed to the air. (3) He has succeeded by artificial means in
manufacturing several pigments from the blood which are similar in color
to various markings upon the wing of the imago; chemical reagents have
the same effect upon these manufactured pigments that they do upon the
similarly colored pigments of the wings. “It should be here noted,” he
says, “that in 1866 Landois pointed out the fact that the color of the
dried blood of many caterpillars is similar to the ground color of the
wings of the mature insect.”
=Ontogenetic and phylogenetic development of colors.=—The colors of the
wings of Lepidoptera, as is well known, are acquired at the end of the
pupal state. The order of development of the colors in the pupal wings
has been observed by Schaeffer, Van Bemmelen, Urech, Haase, Dixey,
Spuler, and A. G. Mayer. The immature wings are at first transparent and
full of protoplasm. The transparent condition of the wings corresponds
to the period before the scales are formed, and when they are full of
protoplasm; they then become whitish as the scales develop; the latter
are at first filled with protoplasm, and afterwards turn whitish, being
little hollow sacks filled with air. After the protoplasm has completely
withdrawn from the scales, the blood of the pupa enters them, and then
the coloring-matter forms. (Mayer.) He adds that “about twenty-four
hours after the appearance of the dull yellow suffusion the mature
colors begin to show themselves. They arise, faint at first, in places
near the centre of the wings, and are distinguished by the fact that
they first appear upon areas between the nervures, never upon the
nervures themselves. Indeed, the last place to acquire the mature
coloration are the outer and costal edges of the wings, and the
nervures.”
The faint color of the scales gradually increases in intensity. “For
example, if a scale be destined to become black, it first becomes pale
grayish brown, and this color gradually deepens into black.”
Urech states that in _Vanessa io_ first a white, and in _V. urticæ_ a
pale reddish hue, are spread over the entire wings, and then
successively arise other colors in the following order: yellow, yellow
to brown, red, brown and black.
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