[Mode of formation of the flight muscles in a nematocerous Diptera]

An electron microscope study was conducted on the origin of the dorsal longitudinal muscles of a Nematocerous Diptera (Chironomus). These imaginal muscles arise from three pairs of slender larval muscles that are characterized by the presence of myoblasts located beneath the basal lamina and adhering to the sarcoplasmic membrane. During the last larval instar the myoblasts increase in number, each of the associated muscle fibers loses its contractile material and splits longitudinally into two to form six columns of sarcoplasm. Differentiation of the fibrillar material begins in each of the six muscle rudiments after the adhering myoblasts have become incorporated. There are several possible origins for these myoblasts: they may be embryonic cells that persist in association with the larval muscle fibers; or --as in the case of Cyclorrhaphous Diptera-- they may migrate from elsewhere to invest these fibers.