Worm Breeder's Gazette 3(1): 18a

These abstracts should not be cited in bibliographies. Material contained herein should be treated as personal communication and should be cited as such only with the consent of the author.

Title unknown.

Authors unknown.

The phasmid is a sensilla in the tail analogous to the amphids in 
the head and probably functions as a chemosensory receptor.  Like most 
sensillae it is apparently attached to the hypodermis by a specialized 
cell, the socket cell.  The phasmid socket cell is derived from the T. 
seam cell after 3 rounds of division that occur in the first larval 
stage.  The sister of the socket cell differentiates into a cell of 
unknown function which has been nick-named the 'wing' cell.  In the 
hermaphrodite the lineage of the socket cell is T.Paa, whereas the 
wing is T.PaP.  In the male these allocations are reversed.  A male 
and hermaphrodite were fixed and sectioned in L2 lethargus to try to 
find out the reason for this reversal.  It was found that at this 
stage (i.e.  about 5 hours after the socket and wing had been born) 
both these cells looked like socket cells, one being concentric to the 
other, both in the hermaphrodite and in the male.  Thus it seems that 
soon after birth these two cells are equivalent and that in the course 
of development one gets transformed into a wing cell; either may be 
chosen to do this depending on the sex of the animal.
A further animal was fixed about 5 hours after hatching (i.e.  
before the T.  cell had divided) and reconstructed.  It was found that 
in this case the posterior part of the T.  seam cell was functioning 
as a socket cell.  The socket and wing cells are ultimately derived 
from the posterior daughter of the first division of the T.  seam cell 
so that it seems that this differentiated function is propagated 
through the lineage.