Some qualitative liver functions in hornet yellow cuticle.

In social hornets of sub-family Vespinae there are stripes or areas in the cuticle which are endowed with a bright color (yellow, orange, green) that is different from the customary native brown color. In these brightly colored areas, the middle and bottom layers of the cuticle contain a yellow-colored filling material instead of the ordinary lamellae of which the cuticle is comprised. At high magnification, most of the yellow matter is seen to be made up of yellow granules interlinked by string-like threads. Apart from yellow granules, hemolymph and a surrounding cuticle, these areas are also found to contain glucose, iron and triglycerides as well as enzymes like GOT, GPT, CPK and LDH, in high concentrations that vary considerably from those in vespan hemolymph and whose levels are different under illumination than in the dark. Such high levels of enzymes suggest first an association with liver function activities, and secondly, that the difference in their levels when exposed to light and when subjected to darkness is indicative of the influence of the energy of light upon them.