Hidden Genetic Variation Yields Caterpillar of a Different Color

摘要

People change clothes depending on the temperature outside. Tomato hornworms change color. These caterpillars emerge green when it's above 28℃ and black when it's cooler. Now two insect physiologists report on page 650 that they have teased out a possible genetic basis of this color change by breeding a mutant strain of a related species, the tobacco horn-worm, until it too undergoes a similar switch.