# Albino Insects



## Andrew

Is it possible for any insects to be albino? I think it would be really cool to have an albino mantis...

Thanks,

Andrew


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## Sheldon Johnson

i doubt if it would be possible tbh as due to the fact its a genetic weakness, the mantis would have minimal survival chance and probably wouldn't make it out of the ooth.


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## Jesse

I believe only vertebrates can be albino. Some insect and crustacean cultures exist that contain red eye or white eye and other albino like forms but are not truly albino.


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## Barvid

Is the red-eyed fruitfly (Drosophila hydei) a "not real albino"?


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## Jesse

Drosophila hydei naturally has red eyes, so does D. melanogaster.


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## Barvid

Thanks :wink:


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## herpfan

hmmm, have to look into it further, but i dont see why it would be impossible to have albino insects. insects have colour pigments too, and albino is just a mutation which interrupts the metabolic pathway which leads to the expression of the pigment.

Kev 8)


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## Jesse

Well, ok so albinism may indeed occur in some insects but it is extemely rare, and only seems to occur in highly inbred laboratory cultures of insects such as one of the migratory locusts. Keep in mind that albinism defined as the lack of pigment may be different in mammals as it is in insects, but still is what it is "a lack of pigment".


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## Andrew

This could prove to be an interesting experiment(or a series of very time consuming failures).

If an albino were to be born, and was successfully bred, the gene would be passed on and a certain percentage of the babies would be albino, right? And then the babies that werent albino would carry the gene and be heterozygous for albino? I know about color morph genetics in breeding reptiles, but I dont know if it works the same with insects.

Thanks,

Andrew


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## Jesse

If you are willing to breed the same line of mantids for possibly decades or longer, then go right ahead. I wouldn't want to take the chance that it is a lethal mutation in the species being bred, and all the potential albinos never even hatch from their egg (too weak).


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## Andrew

Ok...nevermind then. Lol. :lol: 

Thanks,

Andrew


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## JohnCon

I just received cockroaches from yen and one of them was an albino it is freaky cool!


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## AmandaLynn

john conway said:


> I just received cockroaches from yen and one of them was an albino it is freaky cool!


Really :blink: What does it look like? Does it have red eyes? Are you sure it hasn't just molted?


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## kookamonga

Your best bet to find an albino insect is in captivity imho. In the wild they'll have very hard time surviving due to lack of camo.


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## Katnapper

john conway said:


> I just received cockroaches from yen and one of them was an albino it is freaky cool!


I thought I had an albino cricket in one of my first batches of crickets. But I was informed it had just molted. Your cockroach, sadly, is not unique... it's just molted and will turn the same color as the rest of them in a couple of days.  I see them all of the time in my roach colony.


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## JohnCon

Katnapper said:


> I thought I had an albino cricket in one of my first batches of crickets. But I was informed it had just molted. Your cockroach, sadly, is not unique... it's just molted and will turn the same color as the rest of them in a couple of days.  I see them all of the time in my roach colony.


ohhh damn!! haha i admit i know nothing of cockroaches, it still looks cool though!


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## Katnapper

john conway said:


> ohhh damn!! haha i admit i know nothing of cockroaches, it still looks cool though!


Yes, it does look cool.  And when I'm hand feeding roaches, these babys are the first ones I pick... soft and yummy (or at least I'm guessing they are)!


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## TanteEdgar

Alright, forget the albinos, let's pick on the gingers!!!


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## Radek

There are very many color morphs of the crayfish Procambarus clarkii. So it is possible also for insects.


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## Bugmankeith

Dubia roaches sometimes get high amount of Orange or yellow color, a katydid species comes on pink yellow and orange mutants, and feeder crickets sometimes get white or red eyes. http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?239643-White-eyed-feeder-crickets

http://bugguide.net/images/cache/XL9Z5LWZKLYH4HDH5HZR9HZR6HYHNHWZPHLR9H9Z4LWZ8LYH5L1ZQL2ZGLFHIL9Z7LUZGLLR8HOHMHYH8LHR8LNZ9H.jpg


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## bobericc

Got an albino mantis like a few years back from yen saw. Never got an ID yen claimed it came from his ceiling Xp

Wings were also pretty white, and was a smaller saddle wingset.

Besides hymenopus this is the whitest mantis ive ever kept.


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## jjjggggh

..


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## FraidyCat

> On 12/13/2014 at 7:26 AM, bobericc said:



Incredible! Beautiful mantis! let me know if anybody IDs it, I love a good mystery  

I'm willing to hazard that any creature that forms pigment and passes genes can be born with albinism, and that it can occur just as easy in a mantis. Even PLANTS can be albino, as detrimental as it can be for them, and plants have many points (four or more, iirc?) during reproduction where they check for mutation! Albinism's one and only disability would be to sight - many albinistic creatures suffer from dayblindness or light sensitivity, which for most creatures causes short-sightedness, but otherwise albinism or has no inherent effect on the creature aside from a heightened potential to get dermal cancers (not a problem for bugs) due no melanin protecting them. So, saying they'd be too weak to hatch from the ooth would give me some doubts - it'd be the nearly same as saying that a pale violin will die sooner than a dark violin. Its all pigment, its not like you're messing with the actual chitin of the mantis! Perhaps it would be targeted by other nymphs as it is easier to spot and may look more like a prey item, maybe its too bright for them to see correctly in, but there are no inherently fatal mutations due to albinism. Usually albino creatures have genetic deformities due to reckless inbreeding caused by humans to gain the albino standard among offspring, but definitively albinism as a condition does not and never will cause death or overall suffering to the animal, though there will be always consequences for not having any melanin at all. Again, inbreeding kills, albinism doesn't.

Either or, albinism has some close cousins when it comes to colour mutation - namely leucism and melanism, a decreased and increased amount of pigment respectively. I think the quoted mantis might be a leucistic mantis and not a true albino, which is a phrase thrown around on the internet a lot, unfortunately! Im not an expert on bugs  (as there seems to be a stark lack of scientific inquiry into it) Since albinism is a lack of all pigment, the hue of the hemolymph would show through from under the chitin - given that the chitin isnt too thick. This would make the mantis stark white, as hemolymph does not carry a pigment (i think? it does have hemocyanin in it right?) In animals, this causes the pink/red/purple noses, eyes, and pads, and characterizes them as a true albino. Leucism, on the other hand, is extremely similar to albinism but there is still some pigment left visible on the creature - causing ghostly, cinnamon or tan markings. I cant really see the eyes too well in the mantis video, but my opinion comes from the brownish markings on the abdomen and near the knees. Then again, many "albino" bugs tend to be yellow or show these brown spots... so who knows!

for a visual example (since text can be a bit wobbly) heres some owls!







melanistic barn owl &amp; a typical barn owl. note the dark markings where there are none in a typical barn owl.









Leucistic great grey owl (note the "ghostly" cinnamon markings) and a typical great grey owl








true albino european scops (note the pink flesh and red eyes) and a typical european scops.

And, to lay things to rest, a leucistic being would have the same conditions as an albino animal, though not as severe. Melanistic animals on the other hand tend to be more healthy than their paler counterparts, should memory serve. And, since I know that there will be someone popping up to mention that mantids do not have melanocytes: consider this article. A "missing link" relative to the mantis, who's entire species is considered albino. So reasonably, yes, mantises can be albino in my opinion, though you are much, much, MUCH more likely to find a leucistic individual as true albinism is very rare and, well, notably hard to diagnose in arthropods.

Without these crucial mutations, animals would not be able to evolve their camouflage very effectively, now would they? Think about it. If it was fundamentally detrimental to change your markings, once your camo goes out of style your whole species is hooped. And to boot, mantids are under incredible pressure to be healthy, any living albino mantids are probably the cream of the crop anyways. How do you think doves became so white, aside from an evolutionary gradient? Even in captivity, if an albino mantis wasn't strong enough to survive, it certainly wouldn't pass its genes without human intervention.

If you want to keep reading about marking mutation, try googling "piebald", "abundism", "chimerism", "vitiligo" and "somatic mutation" followed by any sort of animal. Incredibly interesting stuff! Of course, i'm totally down to read if anyone has anything else to say - if you haven't already noticed, this stuff fascinates me! im always eager to learn about it.


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## Ranitomeya

In most insects, the hardened exoskeleton darkens as the sclerotin hardens even in albinos, so the only real way to tell whether or not some of them are albinos is from the lack of pigments in their eyes since that is the only place you tend not to find non-melanin black pigments. Since insects have numerous sources of pigmentation from the components and the microstructure of their exoskeleton, from the color of the oxygen-binding substances in their blood, from various proteins in their hemolymph that can result from physiological responses to stresses, and from the color of pigments absorbed from what they've consumed.

If you define an albino insect as an individual having an aberration where they lack one or more pigments and not just by the lack of melanin, they're usually quite common due to the very high number of offspring produced in most species. Unfortunately, many obviously aberrant individuals die because the pigments are usually some important protein and all we are left with are individuals that vary only a little in pigmentation from normal individuals.


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## ★ Ｔｒａｃｙ Ｇｒｅｙ ☆

~ I've seen an albino mantis a while back in my backyard so they do exist I wish I kept it though, at the time I had no room for a mantis.  us albinos gotta stick together ?


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