Abstract
THE monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is one of the best known species which sequester and store cardiac glycosides1–3 obtained directly from their larval food plants. On the other hand Euploea core, a related Danaid species feeding on the same family, Asclepiadaceae, is a poor storer of these substances4. Cardenolides are absent if the butterflies are reared on plants which do not contain them, and, in the past, all cardioactivity in the insects' body tissues has been attributed to dietary cardenolides. We now report that extracts of both larva and pupa reared on a leaf-free artificial diet5 proved cardioactive, slowing the action of an isolated rat heart (Langendorff preparation)6 and increasing the amplitude of contraction.
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