IDENTIFICATION AND AGE-DEPENDENCE OF PTERIDINES IN THE HEAD OF ADULT MEXICAN FRUIT-FLY, ANASTREPHA LUDENS

Pteridines from head capsules of adult Anastrepha ludens were identifi ed and evaluated as a tool for age determination of flies. Pteridines were identified by a combination of TLC, HPLC and UV and fluorescence spectroscopy. Tentative identifications were obtained for one red pter ine, neodrosopterin, and three orange pterines, drosopterin, isodrosop terin and aurodrosopterin. Five pterines with blue or blue-green fluor escence were found and four were identified: 7,8-dihydrobiopterin; bio pterin; pterin; and pterin-6-carboxylic acid. An additional blue fluor escing non-pteridine compound was identified as kyurenine. Two pterine s with yellow fluorescence were identified as sepiapterin and deoxysep iapterin. Titers of sepiapterin and deoxysepiapterin were age dependen t based on TLC and HPLC analyses. HPLC demonstrated that only deoxysep iapterin accumulated sufficiently and over a sufficiently long period of adult life to be useful as a quantitative tool for determining age of adult flies. The HPLC method developed in this work specifically fo r separation of deoxysepiapterin from sepiapterin and other pteridines used reverse-phase (C18) with a mobile phase of 30% methanol in water and detection at 420 nm.