Embryonic and post-embryonic development

Abstract

The modern era of insect developmental study began almost a century ago with the outstanding descriptive work of Wheeler (1889, 1893) in the United States and Heymons (1895) in Germany. It is ironic that the developmental analysis of cockroaches, among the most studied insects, has advanced so little since. This bleak state of affairs is reflected in the absence of a section on embryogenesis in a book on the biology of the cockroach which was published only 13 years ago (Guthrie and Tindall, 1968). Important research has been done on fertilization, post-embryonic development and the life cycle (Chapter 1), the development of specific subsystems and on related topics such as reproduction (Chapter 13) and regeneration (Chapter 16). What is missing are detailed descriptions of normal embryonic development and experimental analyses which reveal the mechanisms of the developmental process.