Lepidoptera pigments

The eyespots on butterfly wings are a recently derived evolutionary novelty that arose in a subset of the Lepidoptera and play an important role in predator avoidance. The production of the eyespot pattern is controlled by a developmental organizer called the focus, which induces the surrounding cells to synthesize specific pigments. The evolution of the developmental mechanisms that establish focus was therefore the key to the origin of butterfly eyespots (Keys et al., 1999, p.532). 

Schwemer, J. Paulsen, R. (1973) Three visual pigments inDeilephila elpenor (Lepidoptera, Sphingidae). J. Comp. Physiol. Vol. 86, pp 215-229... 

Dey S, Hooroo RNK, Bhattacharjee CR (1998) Electron microscopy and spectroscopical studies on the coloured patches on the wing of a butterfly, Graphium sarpedon (Lepidoptera Papillionidae) with reference to their photobiological and electrical properties. Pigment Cell Res 11(1) 1-11... 

Pyrazino[2,3-d/]pyrimidines are known as pteridines , because the first examples of the ring system, as natural products, were found in pigments, like xanthopterin (yellow), in the wings of bntterflies (Lepidoptera). The pteridine ring system has subsequently been found in coenzymes that use tetrahydrofolic acid (derived from the vitamin folic acid), and in the cofactor of the oxomolybdoenzymes and comparable tungsten enzymes. 

The isolation of insect chemicals began slowly. Kermesic acid or Venetian red, a pigment from beetles (Chapter 8) has been known and used from ancient times. Wray, in 1670, reported formic acid by distillation of formicine ants. It was not until the 1930s that it began to be recognized that some Lepidoptera males were chemically attracted to females, and... 

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