Submitted on August 4, 2005
Revised on December 1, 2005
Accepted on December 1, 2005
The predominance of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the butterfly (Morpho Peleides) before and after metamorphosis
Yingming Wang, Don S. Lin, Linda Bolewicz, and William E. Connor
Medicine/Clinical Nutrition, L 465, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239
Corresponding Author: connorw{at}ohsu.edu
We hypothesized that the polyunsaturated fatty acids of the butterfly were probably derived from the diet and that there might be a great loss of body fat during metamorphosis. To substantiate these hypotheses, we analyzed the fatty acid composition and content of the diet, the larva and the butterfly (Morpho Peleides). Both the diet and the tissues of the larva and butterfly had a high concentration of polyunsaturated fatty acids. In the diet, linolenic acid was 19 percent and linoleic acid was 8 percent of total fatty acids. In the larva, almost 60 percent of the total fatty acids were polyunsaturated: linolenic acid predominated at 42 percent of total fatty acids and linoleic acid at 17 percent. In the butterfly, linolenic acid was 36 percent and linoleic acid was11 percent of total fatty acids. The larva had a much higher total fatty acid content than the butterfly (20.2 vs. 6.9 mg). Our data indicate that the transformation from larva to butterfly during metamorphosis drastically decreased the total fatty acid content. There was the bio-enhancement of polyunsaturated fatty acids from the diet to the larva and butterfly. This polyunsaturation of membranes may have functional importance in providing membrane fluidity useful in flight.
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