Alate differentiation and compound-eye development in the dry-wood termite <Emphasis Type="Italic">Neotermes koshunensis</Emphasis> (Isoptera,Kalotermitidae) |
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Authors: | H Katoh T Matsumoto T Miura |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Biology, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo 153-8902, Japan;(2) Faculty of Liberal Arts, The University of the Air, Wakaba 2–11, Mihama-ku, Chiba 261-8586, Japan;(3) Laboratory of Ecology and Genetics, Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan |
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Abstract: | In social insects, caste-specific characters develop in the postembryonic differentiation processes. However, the mechanisms
of caste-specific organ development have yet to be elucidated. In order to obtain insights into the relationship between caste
differentiation and the regulation of organ development, we determined the caste-developmental pathway and observed compound-eye
development accompanying alate differentiation in the dry-wood termite, Neotermes koshunensis. As previously reported in other Neotermes, this species has a linear caste-developmental pathway, comprising six larval- and two nymphal-instar stages. Although the
apparent eye formation occurs during the last nymphal stages, just prior to the imaginal molt, individuals possess eye primordia
from the first larval-instar stage. The outer morphological structure of the eye was observed from the third larval-instar
stage. The detailed differentiation of cells constituting ommatidia appeared to occur in relatively young larval instars (fourth
stage), although the pigmentation of pigment cells and detailed structural formation of ommatidia occurred during the final
stage of alate development, i.e., during the late second nymphal-instar stage. This suggests that eye development is arrested
in the larval stages, and then resumed during the late nymphal stage to complete functional eye formation, which is required
for nuptial flight. In comparison to major hemimetabolous insects, which possess functional compound eyes even at the first
instar larva, this termite species shows the heterochronic shift in terms of compound-eye development.
Received 20 March 2006; revised 24 September 2006; accepted 4 October 2006. |
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Keywords: | Caste differentiation nymph ommatidium pigmentation postembryonic development |
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