No abstract

SummarySocial regulation of egg production and weight in queens was studied in relation to presence and absence of larvae and workers in the pharaoh's ant, Monomorium pharaonis (L.).Results were obtained by counting eggs and weighing queens under various conditions. The results confirm the existence of a positive feed-back loop between mated queens and their larvae as evident from a correlation (Y = 4.575 * X + 6.452) between the number of large worker larvae (X) and the egg yield (Y). This correlation seems to relate to the queens preferential feeding on larval secretions. Queens without larvae maintained a low level of egg production of about 6 eggs/day. Queens deprived of larvae as well as workers stopped producing eggs within 24 hours.Repletes, special workers, with greatly distended gasters functioned as a buffer retarding decline of egg production by feeding the queens during short periods without larvae.

No abstract

The unlabeled antibody-enzyme method was used to demonstrate ultrastructurally the specific localization of vitellogenin in the fat body of Calliphora. In control flies the binding sites to vitellogenin were localized in secretory granules situated in the Golgi complex, and in larger bodies named composite secretory granules. These composite granules appear to be formed when a part of a Golgi complex containing secretory granules and a number of small vesicles become surrounded by a common membrane. Ovariectomized flies, which apparently do not produce secretory granules, exhibited no immunocytochemical staining. Ovariectomized flies in which the administration of ecdysterone induced formation of secretory granules, also revealed specific staining on these granules. This is the first ultrastructural evidence of: (a) the specific localization of vitellogenin in secretory granules of the fat body of an insect; (b) the relationship between the presence of the ovary, and of ecdysterone, and the synthesis of vitellogenin by the fat body.

No abstract