The formation of plasma membrane reticular systems in the oenocytes of an insect

Abstract

Plasma membrane reticular systems (RSs) are infolds of the plasma membrane found in cells of several insect tissues that are not transporting epithelia. They form a subsurface reticular lymph space that may be involved in the loading and unloading of hemolymph carrier molecules. The development of a new RS during the fifth larval stadium has been studied in the oenocytes of Calpodes ethlius by scanning electron microscopy. The RS forms by the extension and progressive apical fusion of cell processes leaving a reticular lymph space below. Reticular system formation occurs in a front moving over the cell surface. The RS made in the 4th stadium persists through the moult to the 5th stage but diminishes for the next 3 days. A new intermoult RS then forms very quickly. Its time of formation follows the commitment ecdysteroid peak rather than the beginning of secretion by the wax glands. This new 5th stage RS is maintained during the period of intermoult synthesis, after which it declines and is nearly absent by the time of pupation.