Abstract
The nature, function, and occurrence of pre-cuticulin fibrils are discussed. They are shown for the general body surface and more specifically for the pulvillus, where the first-formed fibrils are consolidated into the membrane shown in interference micrographs. Similar fibrils are present in developing tracheae and tracheoles, and the folded developing air sac is embedded in a mass of such fibrils. Of perhaps the greatest interest is the occurrence of similar pre-cuticulin fibrils in imaginal discs throughout larval and pre-pupal life. Thus the cells secreting the fibrils behave as typical epidermal cells, except that they do not embark on the subsequent phases of cuticle secretion until the pupal cuticle is formed, when cuticulin is the first secretory product. The membrane formed of pre-cuticulin fibrils is considered to be quite different from the membrane within the puparium which is typical of the ecdysial membrane of other specific insects, being an inner layer of endocuticle, qualitatively and quantitatively different from the layer of endocuticle secreted earlier.
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