Summary
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1.
Segmentally arranged swellings occur in the medial nervous systems of many insects: they were examined in the stick insect, Carausius morosus; locust, Schistocerca gregaria and cockroach, Periplaneta americana.
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2.
The ultrastructure of these swellings shows that they are not ganglia, but contain numerous neurosecretory axon branches, and suggests that they serve to release neurosecretory material into the haemolymph.
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3.
The major neurosecretory product in each species is unlike the electron-dense granules most frequently described in other neuroseoretory systems. In Carausius and Sehistocerca it occurs as electron-transparent vesicles, respectively 1100–2500 Å and 400–800 Å in diameter; in Periplaneta as a mixture of electron-transparent vesicles, 800–1500 Å in diameter, and electron-dense granules, 550–1000 Å in diameter.
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4.
In each case there is, in addition, a small number of neurosecretory axons containing “classical” electron-dense granules. These organs therefore contain at least two types of neurosecretion.
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5.
The evidence suggests that the electron-transparent vesicles in Carausius and Sehistocerca probably comprise “C-type” neurosecretory material, which stains with azan but not with paraldehyde-fuchsin.
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Supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under grant AF EOAR 65-19 through the European Office of Aerospace Research (OAR), United States Air Force.
Research Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
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Brady, J., Maddrell, S.H.P. Neurohaemal organs in the medial nervous system of insects. Zeitschrift für Zellforschung 76, 389–404 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00339296
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00339296