Yellow eye color mutant in Trichoplusia ni (Lepidoptera : Noctuidae)

A yellow-eyed mutant adult occurred as a spontaneous mutation in a laborato ry culture of cabbage loopers, Trichopusia ni (Hubner). The wild type adult s have gray-brown compound eyes. No other differences from the wild-type we re detected in the external characteristics of the mutant phenotype. Intern ally, the wild-type male has brightly colored brick-red testes, and the mut ant has white testes. The mutant, designated bagheera, is a simple Mendelia n autosomal recessive with complete penetrance. Mutants have less than norm al amounts of the ommochrome dihydroxyxanthommatin in their heads, indicati ng a possible defect in the pathway from tryptophan to xanthommatin.