Premium
Characteristics of the flagellar axoneme in Neuroptera, Coleoptera, and Strepsiptera
Author(s) -
Afzelius Björn A.,
Dallai Romano
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of morphology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.652
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1097-4687
pISSN - 0362-2525
DOI - 10.1002/jmor.1052190104
Subject(s) - biology , neuroptera , axoneme , osmium tetroxide , anatomy , synapomorphy , sperm , insect , fixative , zoology , electron microscope , microbiology and biotechnology , botany , flagellum , phylogenetics , cytoplasm , biochemistry , clade , physics , larva , optics , gene
Spermatozoa from representatives of the five insect orders in superorder Neuropteroidea were examined by electron microscopy following a new fixation method that includes tannic acid in the primary fixative but has uranyl acetate rather than osmium tetroxide as the secondary fixative. The sperm axoneme was found to be similar in the four orders Megaloptera, Raphidioptera, Neuroptera, and Coleoptera, and is characterized above all by its so‐called intertubular material being divided into two portions, one located outside, but in contact with the doublet, and the other projecting from the accessory tubule and having a beak‐like shape. These features have not been seen in insects from other orders and may be a synapomorphy for these neuropteroid orders. The accessory tubules in these four orders have 16 protofilaments. The shape of the accessory bodies adjacent to the mitochondrial derivatives is nearly the same in insects from the more primitive neuropteroid orders and in Coleoptera. The sperm tail of the examined strepsipteran deviates in several respects from that of other neuropteroids: the particle row in the wall of accessory tubules is incomplete, an intertubular material is missing, and the mitochondria contain no crystal. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.