Summary
The two common melanic forms of the Pale Brindled Beauty Moth, Phigalia pilosaria (pedaria), in Britain are controlled by a pair of alleles. Dominance is complete and is in order of darkness; monacharia the extreme, unpatterned melanic is dominant to a patterned melanic, termed “intermediate”, which is in turn dominant to the typical, non-melanic form. The two alleles control the coloration of the wings and the body of the male, and the body of the brachypterous female. Dilute individuals, where all the darker pigment is replaced by a golden yellow, occur in both melanic forms and typical. Such insects are homozygous for a dilute allele, recessive in effect, at a locus unlinked to monacharia.
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Lees, D. Genetic control of the melanic forms of the moth Phigalia pilosaria (pedaria). Heredity 33, 145–150 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1974.82
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1974.82
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