THE INFLUENCE OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ON GROWTH 

 AND INVOLUTION OF INSECT MUSCLES 



Влияние нервной системы на рост и инволюцию мышц у насекомых 



L. Н. FINLAYSON 



(Department of Zoology and Comparative Physiology, 

 University of Birmingham, England) 



The need for innervation in the normal growth of the major muscles in Lepi- 

 dopters was demonstrated by Kopec (1917, 1923) and confirmed by Williams 

 and Schneiderman (1952) and Niiesch (1952) Suster (1933) in a study 

 of regeneration of limbs in Sjphodromantis found that the epidermis develop- 

 ed normally without innervation but that the leg muscles did not develop. 

 Finlayson (1956) found that the cutaneous muscles of adult saturniid 

 moths develop in the absence of innervation. Thus it seems that muscles 

 closely applied to the epidermis can develop without motor innervation but 

 that the deeper muscles require to be innervated in order to develop. 



Another aspect of the relationship of nerves and muscles is the possible 

 role of innervation in the involution of muscles during development. Fin- 

 layson (1956) showed that the denervation of certain abdominal muscles 

 of the wax-moth Galleria causes them to break down during the histolytic 

 period of tfie 1агл"а1-рира1 transformation, but Wigglesworth (1956) found 

 that cycles of groAvth and involution in the abdominal intersegmental muscles 

 of Rhodnius were unaffected by denervation. 



It is obvious that the role of the innervation in the growth and inл"olution 

 of muscles requires further investigation in view of the conflicting evidence 

 at present available. Even in studies of the effect of denervation of abdominal 

 muscles within the Lepidoptera I obtained conflicting results (Finlayson ^ 

 1956). 



Table 1 



Effects of pupal muscles of removal of abdominal 

 ganglia from fully grown larvae of Samia cynthia. 



9d 



