A comparative ultrastructural study of blood cells from nine insect orders

Summary An ultrastructual study of hemocytes from 9 different insect orders has led to the identification of 8 cell types: (1) Plasmatocytes, whose cytoplasm is filled with small dense lysosomes and large heterogeneous structures, are phagocytic cells. (2) Granulocytes, filled with uniformly electron dense granules, are involved in capsule formation. (3) Coagulocytes, which contain granules and structured globules and which possess a well developed RER, are involved in phagocytosis. (4) Spherule cells are filled with large spherical inclusions. (5) Oenocytoids are large cells with few cytoplasmic organelles. These 5 hemocyte types represent the majority of insect blood cells. (6) Prohemocytes, blastic cells which are one of the stem cells of hemocytes, are very few in number in each species investigated. (7) Thrombocytoids and (8) Prodocytes are restricted to a small number of insect species.The ultrastructural characteristics of these hemocyte types are discussed.