Abstract

Insect cuticle forms as a result of overlapping sequences of two kinds of process, those involving vesicles of the Golgi complex, and those related to transport through and/or assembly at the apical plasma membrane. The ecdysial droplets are the last layer of old cuticle to be deposited before ecdysis and form from the contents of secretory vesicles from Golgi complexes. Ecdysial droplets and secretory vesicles both stain with PTA and react with silver hexamine after oxidation with periodic acid. The vesicles discharge in localized apical areas devoid of microvilli where they accumulate as droplets measuring about 3 [ x 1 [. The. droplets span the last few lamellae of the endocuticle which becomes the ecdysial membrane. They dissolve to leave the ecdysial membrane full of holes at the time that the rest of the old cuticle is digested.

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