Abstract
IT has been known for many years that a plexus of multipolar neurones is associated with the epidermis of many insects, especially in the soft-skinned larvæ of Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, and Diptera. Previous descriptions of the dendritic terminations have been restricted to light-microscopical investigations on material stained vitally with methylene blue. The findings of earlier workers on this subject have been reviewed by Snodgrass1, who concluded that the dendrites terminate on the basement membrane covering the epidermal cells. Accounts of more recent work on the sub-epidermal nerve plexus of insects2–5 also support this conclusion. However, electron-microscopic investigations made by the author on the sub-epidermal nerve plexus of the blowfly larva, Phormia terrae-novae, indicate that the dendrites do not terminate on the basement membrane, and the results of preliminary investigations are given here.
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OSBORNE, M. Sensory Nerve Terminations in the Epidermis of the Blowfly Larva. Nature 201, 526 (1964). https://doi.org/10.1038/201526a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/201526a0
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