Host: The Japanese Sciety of Sericultural Science
Seasonal morph determination of the butterfly Eurema hecabe is controlled by photoperiod experienced during larval stage, but its hormonal regulation has been unknown till recent years. Recently, Ishii et al. (2002) demonstrated that summer moph producing hormone, which is a neuropeptide, is involved in the determination of seasonal wing morph. Therefore, we tested whether diapause hormone (DH) of Bombyx mori is effective for the summer morph production of E. hecabe As a result, diapause hormone failed to induce summer morph when applied to autumn morph producing pupae, but unusual and curious melanization was induced on the forewing upperside of the adults obtained. Furthermore, DH may have a possibility to stimulate ovarian maturation in diapause-destined autumn morph females although we must do further experiments. This is the first report where DH effect is found in other insect species except B. mori.
