White Eye Color Mutant in Haematobia irritans (Diptera: Muscidae)

The wild-type eye color of the horn ßy, Hematobia iritans (L.) (Diptera: Muscidae), is a dark reddish brown. An apparent spontaneous mutation in a single adult colony ßy resulted in a white-eyed mutant. A colony of white-eyed horn ßies was established from this single individual and has beenmaintained in the laboratory. Laboratory crosses determined that thewhite-eyed phenotype is inherited as a simple Mendelian autosomal recessive with complete penetrance. No other differences from the wild-type ßies were detected in the external characteristics of the mutant phenotype or in egg viability. However, white-eyed ßies had signiÞcantly lower amounts of the pigment dihydroxyxanthommatin in their heads, suggesting either the lack of xanthommatin production, or a failure of transport and storage within the head of the mutant phenotype.