Histology of larval eye-antennal disks and cephalic ganglia of Drosophila cultured in vitro

In the past decade, a relatively large number of reports have been published on the culture in vitro of organs of Drosophila melanogaster. The majority of these reports have been concerned with the development of the eye-antennal complex explanted, with or without the attached cephalic ganglia, from the prepupal stage (Demal, 1956) or from late second and third larval instar stages (Kuroda & Yamaguchi, 1956; Gottschewski, 1958, 1960, 1962; Gottschewski & Querner, 1961; Fugio, 1962; Schneider, 1964). With the exception of the work of Demal (1956), the above reports have been confined to descriptions of the developing explants solely in morphological terms and, as such, are not wholly adequate for comparisons to be made between development in vivo and in vitro. If, however, such descriptions are supplemented with histological studies, a more valid appreciation can be gained of the potentialities as well as the limitations of such explants under conditions in vitro.