The Preparative Isolation of Imaginal Discs from Larvae of Drosophila Melanogaster

Imaginal discs of insccts have long been known to be embryonic Anlagen (1). Indeed, in Drosophila, the external structures in the head and thoracic regions, as well as some in the abdominal region, develop from imaginal discs (2). Discs develop normally when transplanted into larvae, and Schneider (3) has recently shown that eye discs develop normally and become pigmented in a defined medium. Thus, for the study of morphogenesis, imaginal discs offer a convenient tool. However, such studies have previously been hampered by the requirement for tedious manual dissection of discs. The present paper outlines a procedure for isolating large numbers of discs without dissection.