CONTROL OF CORPORA ALLATA FUNCTION IN LARVAE OF GALLERIA MELLONELLA

¹ Institute of Entomology, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czechoslovakia
² Department of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, California 92664

1. The implantation of three brains into freshly ecdysed last instar larvae which possess at least one of the two corpora allata induces extra larval development. Implanted brains appear to produce a neurohumoral allatotropic factor.

2. Corpora allata seem to be inhibited via their nervous connections 48-60 hours after the last larval-larval ecdysis and become insensitive to the allatotropic factor. Severance of the nerves innervating the corpora allata and adjacent corpora cardiaca induces extra larval development in 7% of the experimental insects and restores sensitivity to the implanted brains in as many as 20%.

3. Severance of the nerves to the corpora cardiaca—corpora allata complexes or implantation of corpora cardiaca—corpora allata complexes into allatectomized larvae in some instances causes a considerable prolongation of the last larval instar. It is suggested that disconnection of the corpora allata from the brain partly removes their inhibition and induces secretion of a low titer of juvenile hormone which is then responsible for the delay in pupation.