The spiny redberry, Rhamnus crocea, is the single larval host plant to the rare Hermes copper butterfly, Lycaena hermes. Though R. crocea has a broad distribution throughout coastal California, Baja California and parts of Arizona, for unknown reasons L. hermes distribution only spans from San Diego county to northern Baja California. One theory for the sedentary behavior of L. hermes is that the leaf chemistry of R. croceadiffers in plants in and out of L. hermes range. Using an Agilent 6400 ESI MS, a novel flavone glycoside has been found within the leaf extracts of R. crocea. Currently, MS is being used to determine the fragmentation patterns of this compound and several other secondary metabolites. Once established, this information will be used to determine relative concentrations of these metabolites inside the range of the L. hermes versus outside of its range.

Investigation of the effects a novel flavone glycoside from Rhamnus crocea has on the Hermes copper butterfly

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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