Heritable color variants in Automeris io (Saturniidae)

T R Manley
1991 The journal of research on the Lepidoptera  
Automeris io populations east of the Mississippi River and north of the Gulf States show extreme sexual dimorphism in forewing dorsal coloration. The yellow males are relatively uniform and the redbrown females are more polymorphic in appearance. A large number of inbred experimental lines has yielded several genetic color forms not known from wild sampling. The Mendelian heterozygote "broken-eye"/ "claw", the more polygenic "large" and "small" eyespot and the polygenic "broad" to "narrow"
more » ... intermarginal hindwing band genes were reported in 1978. To these are added three simple Mendelian recessives: dorsal hindwing "teardrop" with variable expressability; "brown" forewing dorsal ground color; and "rose" fore and hindwing ventral ground color, plus a recessive that produces "yellow" larvae when homozygous. Variability of wild males in Louisiana and wild females in Georgia is discussed.
doi:10.5962/p.266617 fatcat:oljoxxgkgrchrcsmzwwd2nk7r4