The dark brown integumentary pigment of a barnacle (Balanus eburneus)

Summary

A histochemical analysis involving tinctorial and solubility tests was pursued in conjunction with electron microscopy for the purpose of identifying the dark brown epidermal pigment of a barnacle (Balanus eburneus) as melanin and/or ommochrome. Histochemically, comparisons were made with other brown pigments located in the subcarapal epidermis of another crustacean, the fiddler crab (Uca pugilator), the dorsal skin of the red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus), the liver and testis of a slider turtle (Chrysemys sp.) and the substantia nigra of human brain. The solubility properties of the pigment of the two crustacean invertebrates were in general similar to one another and markedly different from the pigment of the three vertebrates. Insolubility in appropriate solvents classified the vertebrate pigment as melanin. The invertebrate pigment, however, which was soluble in the ommochrome solvents, concentrated sulfuric and formic acids and 2-chloroethanol, remained insoluble in the ommochrome solvents, dilute aqueous and methanolic hydrochloric acid and dilute sulfuric acid. On the basis of these solubilities, an unequivocal classification of the invertebrate pigment as either melanin or ommochrome did not appear possible. The tinctorial and electron microscopic properties of the barnacle pigment were also equally ambiguous in regard to its specific classification.