An Insect with Selective Control of Egg Coloration

Evolutionary Ecology: Insect Mothers Control Their Egg Colours

Animal egg coloration has long provided a valuable testing ground for evolutionary ideas. A new study shows that female stink bugs can flexibly control the colour of their eggs depending on the prevailing conditions, including for protection from ultraviolet light.

An Egg-Shell Pd-Ag/ α -Al 2 O 3 Catalyst for Tail-End Acetylene Selective Hydrogenation

Identification of the Bombyx Red Egg Gene Reveals Involvement of a Novel Transporter Family Gene in Late Steps of the Insect Ommochrome Biosynthesis Pathway*♦

Ommochromes are one of the major pigments involved in coloration of eggs, eyes, and body surface of insects. However, the molecular mechanisms of the final steps of ommochrome pigment synthesis have been largely unknown. The eggs of the silkworm Bombyx mori contain a mixture of ommochrome pigments, and exhibit a brownish lilac color. The recessive homozygous of egg and eye color mutant, red egg...

Darker eggs of mosquitoes resist more to dry conditions: Melanin enhances serosal cuticle contribution in egg resistance to desiccation in Aedes, Anopheles and Culex vectors

Mosquito vectors lay their white eggs in the aquatic milieu. During early embryogenesis water passes freely through the transparent eggshell, which at this moment is composed of exochorion and endochorion. Within two hours the endochorion darkens via melanization but even so eggs shrink and perish if removed from moisture. However, during mid-embryogenesis, cells of the extraembryonic serosa se...

Attractive blue-green egg coloration and cuckoo-host coevolution

Recent evidence suggests that blue-green coloration of bird eggshells may be related to female and/or egg phenotypic quality, and that such colour may affect parental effort and therefore the nutritional environment of developing nestlings. Here we suggest that these relationships and the signal function of eggshell coloration would affect the outcome of coevolution between avian brood parasite...