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25 July 2008 Compound Eye Development During Caste Differentiation in the Termite Reticulitermes speratus (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae)
Kiyoto Maekawa, Sayaka Mizuno, Shigeyuki Koshikawa, Toru Miura
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Abstract

We morphologically examined postembryonic compound eye development in Reticulitermes speratus (Kolbe) to understand developmental regulation during caste differentiation. The eye primordia were shown to exist from the larval stage. The number of ommatidia and compound eye size greatly increased over the course of imaginal development. Nymphoids (second-form reproductives) possessed a developed compound eye structure on the surface of the cuticle and thick optic nerves, but individual ommatidia were not clearly discriminated. However, in the line of apterous workers and soldiers, although the outer rim of the eye was observed from second-stage workers, there were few morphological differences among instars, including ergatoids (third-form reproductives). Both nymphoids and ergatoids are slightly physogastric and have highly developed reproductive organs. These results suggest that eye development in the apterous line could be strongly arrested and that there is a weak developmental correlation between the eyes and reproductive organs in R. speratus.

Kiyoto Maekawa, Sayaka Mizuno, Shigeyuki Koshikawa, and Toru Miura "Compound Eye Development During Caste Differentiation in the Termite Reticulitermes speratus (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae)," Zoological Science 25(7), 699-705, (25 July 2008). https://doi.org/10.2108/zsj.25.699
Received: 17 October 2007; Accepted: 1 April 2008; Published: 25 July 2008
KEYWORDS
caste differentiation
compound eye
neotenic reproductive
postembryonic development
social insect
termite
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