Origin and development of the tergotrochanteral muscle in Chironomus (Diptera: Nematocera).

The origin and the development of the tubular tergo-trochanteral muscle (TTD) was studied by light and electron microscopy in Chironomus (Diptera: Nematocera). Unlike the flight muscles, the TTD was found to develop from myoblasts located around a larval axon, without contribution from a larval muscle. The myoblasts fuse together to form myotubes. Innervation of the TTD arises from the larval axon. The myotubes send out sarcoplasmic extensions towards the axon branches issued from the larval axon. The first differentiated synapses are described. The TTD begins to grow later than the flight muscles. The implications of this developmental lag are discussed.

Origin and development of the dorso-ventral flight muscles in Chironomus (Diptera; Nematocera).

The origin and development of the dorso-ventral flight muscles (DVM) was studied by light and electron microscopy in Chironomus (Diptera; Nematocera). Chironomus was chosen because unlike Drosophila, its flight muscles develop during the last larval instar, before the lytic process of metamorphosis. Ten fibrillar DVM were shown to develop from a larval muscle associated with myoblasts. This muscle is connected to the imaginal leg disc so that its cavity communicates with the adepithelial cells present in the disc; but no migration of myoblasts seems to take place from the imaginal leg disc towards the larval muscle or vice versa. At the beginning of the last larval instar, the myoblasts were always present together with the nerves in the larval muscle. In addition, large larval muscle cells incorporated to the imaginal discs were observed to border on the area occupied by adepithelial cells, and are probably involved in the formation of 4 other fibrillar DVM with adepithelial cells. Three factors seem to determine the number of DVM fibres: the initial number of larval fibres in the Anlage, the fusions of myoblasts with these larval fibres and the number of motor axons in the Anlage. The extrapolation of these observations to Drosophila, a higher dipteran, is discussed.

Origin of myoblasts involved in the formation of the flight muscles of a butterfly (Pieris brassicae).

The larval muscle precursors of the dorsal longitudinal flight muscles of Pieris brassicae were examined by electron microscopy at five developmental stages of the fifth larval instar. At the beginning of this instar, a large neuromuscular area (NMA) was observed along the larval muscle precursors, on the side of the muscle where the nerve comes into contact with it. This area was delimited by the basement membrane of the muscle and by a thicker external basal lamina and contained nerve branches, tracheae, neuromuscular endings and cells with a cytoplasm rich is free ribosomes. Cells similar to the ribosome rich cells of the NMA were located along the motor nerves supplying the larval muscle precursors in a compartment joined to the NMA. From 78 hr after the fourth moult onwards, the ribosome-rich cells increased in number, accumulated inside the NMA and in the space around the nerves. Then they penetrated the muscle fibre via the channels of the transverse system. These cells were the myoblasts that later help to form the flight muscles. As regards their earlier origin, they do not seem to derive from cells formed from larval fibre nuclei, but might be present together with the muscle precursors, and along the nerves from the beginning of larval development. The differences with the Nematoceran Diptera are discussed.

Possible migration of imaginal myoblasts from adjacent nerve sheath into the developing flight muscle of Chironomus.

The emplacement of the first imaginal myoblasts along the larval muscles which are precursors of the dorsal longitudinal flight muscles, has been studied in Chironomus (Diptera, Nematocera), by light and electron microscopy. At the beginning of larval life there are no imaginal myoblasts stored along these muscles. These cells are discerned only at the beginning of the last larval instar. They first appear in the median region of the muscles near the neuromuscular junction. Prior to this, however, there are cells possessing the same cytological characteristics as the imaginal myoblasts inside the sheath of the motor nerves that supply the muscles. These observations suggest that myoblasts could arrive by the nerve sheath. The presence of a thick, continuous basal lamina around the larval muscles seems to exclude all other possibility of access to these muscles. The extension of this hypothesis to the Cyclorrhaphan Diptera is discussed.

[Mode of formation of the flight muscles in a nematocerous Diptera]. / Mode de formation des muscles du vol chez un diptère nématocère.

An electron microscope study was conducted on the origin of the dorsal longitudinal muscles of a Nematocerous Diptera (Chironomus). These imaginal muscles arise from three pairs of slender larval muscles that are characterized by the presence of myoblasts located beneath the basal lamina and adhering to the sarcoplasmic membrane. During the last larval instar the myoblasts increase in number, each of the associated muscle fibers loses its contractile material and splits longitudinally into two to form six columns of sarcoplasm. Differentiation of the fibrillar material begins in each of the six muscle rudiments after the adhering myoblasts have become incorporated. There are several possible origins for these myoblasts: they may be embryonic cells that persist in association with the larval muscle fibers; or --as in the case of Cyclorrhaphous Diptera-- they may migrate from elsewhere to invest these fibers.