Abstract
When the diploid histoblasts, the precursors of adult abdominal epidermal cells, of the larva of Drosophila are deleted by gamma-radiation, the polytene larval epidermal cells survive metamorphosis and secrete cuticle and cuticular outgrowths. A comparison of the morphology of the cuticle secreted by the larval epidermal cells in the different regions of the abdominal segments to that secreted by the histoblasts of the unirradiated animal suggests that the former contain the blueprint for the pattern of landscape of the adult abdominal cuticle and possibly could provide this information to the dividing and spreading histoblasts during the normal ontogeny of the fly.
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