Authors: Kyri Forman, Craig Thulin, Heath Ogden
Mentors: Heath Odgen
Insitution: Utah Valley University
The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) uses orange filtering pigments in the eyes to discriminate between different hues of orange and yellow and these pigments are believed to be used for deciphering wing color during mate selection (Blackiston et al., 2011). However, it is not known if these orange pigments in the eyes match those in the wings, or if they are present in the wings or eyes of the white monarch (Danaus plexippus nivosus); a variant caused by a mutation in the wing pigmentation process. For this study, pigment extracts from the wings and eyes of typical orange monarchs and white monarchs were characterized using LCMS and fragmentation MS (including MSMS and MSn) and compared. Of the seven pigments known to occur within the wings of orange monarchs (Forman and Thulin, 2022), three were found in the eyes of orange monarchs and little to none of these pigments were present in the nivosus wings or eyes. This lack of orange pigment within the eyes of white monarchs may signify possible color blindness within this mutant. This is supported by previous reports of these butterflies being less likely to breed and forage for nectar, but behavioral studies will be needed to confirm this hypothesis further.