Drosopterins in the Throat-Fans of Some Puerto Rican Lizards

Abstract

Two major groups of pigments were discovered recently in the throat-fans of Puerto Rican lizards of the genus Anolis¹. Yellow carotenoid pigments were extracted with organic solvents. In addition, a family of highly fluorescent pteridines were readily extractable from the dewlaps with aqueous solvents. Only colourless or faintly buff-coloured pteridines were detected in those species of Anolis the throat-fans of which appear yellow or white. But in those anoles with orange- or crimson-coloured dewlaps (such as A. pulchelhus and A. cristatellus) three principal red-coloured pteridines which fluoresced orange when exposed to ultra-violet light were also present. Paper chiomatography of the latter pigments in five different solvent systems showed that they migrated to the same positions as three red-coloured and orange-fluorescent pigments present in the eyes of Drosophila melanogaster, and which were designated by Viscontini et al.2–4 as neodrosopterin, drosopterin and isodrosop-terin respectively.