Volume of fat body and ovarian development in adult houseflies irradiated as pupae or adults

Abstract

When the anterior one-third, the posterior two-thirds, or the whole body of 24- to 36-hr-old pupae of both sexes of Musca domestica L. were irradiated with 1800 rad. of X-radiation, the volumes of pupal and adult fat body in adults did not differ in the controls and in anteriorly irradiated flies within each age and sex. Similarly, the volumes of fat body did not differ within each age and sex when the whole body or posterior two-thirds were irradiated. Control males and females did not retain pupal fat body 96 hr post-emergence whereas irradiated males and females retained an average of 30 per cent of their pupal fat body at 96 hr postemergence and formed an average of one-third as much adult fat body as controls. However, adults of both sexes irradiated 1·5 hr post-emergence with 2250 rad. did not retain pupal fat body at 96 hr post-emergence. Irradiated adult females contained as much as 2·7 times more adult fat body than control females but irradiated males had a slight decrease in adult fat body compared with control males. Females contained significantly more total fat body (pupal plus adult fat body) than males.