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Development of the Wing Margin in Precis coenia (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)

1989; Volume: 27; Issue: 3-4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5962/p.332213

2156-5457

C F Dohrmann, H. Frederik Nijhout,

Coleoptera Taxonomy and Distribution

The shape of the wings of Lepidoptera is determined in the larval imaginal disk by the position of a peripheral "bordering lacuna".The portion of the imaginal disk proximal to this lacuna (the wing epithelium) will form the wing proper, while cells distal to this lacuna (the peripheral epithelium) undergo programmed cell death during the pupal stage.In Precis coenia, cell death in the peripheral epithelium begins on the ventral side by six hours after pupation and gradually spreads throughout the epithelium over the next 72 hours.After this period of cell death the adult wing has achieved its final form and size.The most peripheral of the scale-forming cells on the adult wing become enlarged between 48 and 72 hours after pupation.These scale cells will produce the fringe of long marginal scales.Transplant experiments show that determination of these marginal scales must have occurred prior to pupation, and thus well prior to the period of cell death in the peripheral epithelium.We found that in P. coenia the marginal scales do not form a discrete size group but rather are the extremes of a gradient in scale size that extends in from the wing margin for at least 3 scale-cell rows.We postulate that some special property of the wing margin, presumably originating from the bordering lacuna but decaying with distance, is responsible for inducing the formation of the unusually large scales that form the marginal fringe.