RESUMO
A bivoltine checkerspot butterfly,Poladryas minuta, is aPenstemon specialist, not known to utilize any other plant genus for oviposition and larval feeding. At several intermontane plains sites of central Colorado, the butterfly utilizesPenstemon virgatus as its sole host plant. Analysis of the host plant showed it to contain three cinnamyl-type catalpol esters (scutellarioside-II, globularin, globularicisin) and catalpol. The host plant contained an average of 10% dry weight iridoids, but some variation among individual plants and leaves within plants was noted. Field-collected butterflies contained 2.1-8.7% dry weight catalpol, but no other iridoids. Adults from larvae fedP. virgatus in the lab contained 4.2-9.0% dry weight catalpol and excreted large amounts of catalpol in the meconium. No catalpol was found in the larval frass. Larvae did not consume three alternate iridoid-containing host-plant species, and most eventually died rather than feed on the alternate plants. Larvae did consume small amounts of artificial diets containing the alternate species andP. virgatus, but most went into diapause and some died. Survival was good on artificial diet containing 10% dry weight of the iridoid esters fromP. virgatus. Only catalpol was found in pupae and adults, but it was absent from the larval frass. The cinnamic-type acids expected from larval hydrolysis of the esters were not found in larval frass, pupae, or adults. These results are contrasted with those found for another checkerspot,Euphydryas anicia, which consumes a different host-plant species but was present at one of the same sites withPoladryas minuta.
RESUMO
The checkerspot butterfly,Euphydryas anicia, utilizes mainlyBesseya plantaginea and only occasionallyCastilleja integra as a larval hostplant at Michigan Hill, a few kilometers from a site whereC. integra is used by over 90% of the butterflies. TheB. plantaginea leaves that are consumed contain 9-22% iridoid glycosides, composed mainly of catalpol and catalpol esters, while larvae from the same plants contain 6-18% iridoids, mainly catalpol and no esters. Field-collected adult butterflies contain 0.5-4.3% iridoids. Laboratory-reared adults secrete iridoids in the meconium upon eclosion and retain similar amounts. The adult and meconium iridoid content is considerably lower than in the larvae, and metabolism in the pupal stage may be occurring.
RESUMO
Serum from patients with the acute form of the Guillain-Barré syndrome was applied to cultures containing only rat dorsal root ganglion neurons and Schwann cells. Serum taken from 4 of 10 patients during the first 1-3 weeks of clinical onset had previously been shown to have significant demyelinating activity in this culture system when observed at the light microscopic level. More detailed assessment made at the ultrastructural level showed that: (1) wide-spread myelin-related Schwann cell lysis occurred in concert with vesicular myelin breakdown; (2) non-myelin-related Schwann cells avidly phagocytized necrotic cell debris and fragments of compact myelin; and (3) neurites and non-myelin-related Schwann cells remained structurally undamaged. Cultures treated with convalescent phase serum from patients whose acute phase serum had cytolytic activity displayed no significant ultrastructural damage to either neurites or Schwann cells. This is the first electron microscopic study to provide direct evidence that acute Guillain-Barré serum can be cytolytic for myelin-related Schwann cells and peripheral myelin in an experimental setting free of leukocytes, lymphocytes and mononuclear phagocytes.
