This study shows that peroxisomes are abundant in the Malpighian tubule and gut of wild-type Oregon R Drosophila melanogaster and that the peroxisomal population of the rosy-506 eye-color mutant differs from that of the wild type. Catalase activity in wild-type flies is demonstrable in bodies of appearance and centrifugal behavior comparable to the peroxisomes of vertebrate tissues. Xanthine oxidase (xanthine:oxygen oxidoreductase, EC 1.1.3.22) activity of the Malpighian tubule of wild-type flies is demonstrable cytochemically in bodies like those containing catalase. The rosy-506 mutant flies, with a deletion in the structural gene for xanthine dehydrogenase (xanthine:NAD+ oxidoreductase, EC 1.1.1.204), lack cytochemically demonstrable peroxisomal xanthine oxidase activity. In addition, peroxisomes in the rosy-506 mutants show less intense cytochemical staining for catalase than those in wild-type flies, and biochemical assays indicate that catalase in the rosy mutant is much more accessible to substrate in the absence of detergent than in the wild type. Thus, the rosy-506 mutation appears to affect peroxisomes and may mimic aspects of the defects of peroxisomes in some human metabolic disorders.