Firefly lantern, octopamine

Extensive pharmacological investigations of octopamine receptors have been reported for locust skeletal muscle (87), firefly lantern (8j2, 89), tobacco hornworm central nervous system (88,89),... 

Interest in octopamine receptors has grown with the discovery that a novel group of pesticides, the formamidines, are octopamine agonists (95). Thus chlordimeform (CDM) or demethylchlordimeform (DCDM) are able to activate octopamine receptors in firefly lantern (95,96), tobacco hornworm central nervous system (88), locust skeletal muscle (97), locust oviduct muscle (91,), locust corpora cardiaca (98), locust fat body (99). and cockroach haemocytes (39). 

Figure 3. Stimulation of adenylate cyclase from the firefly lantern by either octopamine or N-acetyloctopamine.

Carbodiimide 2 reportedly also stimulates the octopamine-sensitive adenylate cyclase of the bulb mite Rhizoglyphus echinopus [30], adults of the diamondback moth Plutella xylosteUa [31] and the lantern of the firefly Photinus pyralis, an organ known to be a rich source of octopamine-sensitive adenylate cyclase [32]. Since poisoning symptoms of diamondback moth adults treated with diafenthiuron or 2 resembled closely those of the known octopaminergic agonist... 

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