from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A yellow pigment in the wings of certain butterflies and moths, found also in the urine of mammals.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A yellow crystalline solid that occurs mainly in the wings of butterflies and in the urine of mammals, converted by microorganisms into folic acid.
Sorry, no etymologies found.
It turns out that an Oriental hornet's shell can trap sunlight, while the pigment xanthopterin converts it to energy.
The yellow stripe on the abdomen is made from pinhole depressions, and contains a pigment called xanthopterin.
Together, the light diverging grooves, pinhole depressions and xanthopterin change light into electrical energy.