Some Vital Staining Reactions Bearing upon the Homology of Spermatocyte Dictyosomes. 20

Abstract

In male germ cells the well-known dictyosomes and their derivatives, the acroblasts, are vigorously blackened by silver or osmium impregnation methods. Therefore they have been termed “Golgi bodies” and are accepted as complete homologues of the Golgi-apparatus of mammalian nerve and gland cells. The Golgi-apparatus is believed to be concerned with the function of secretion. An example frequently cited is that the acrosome of the animal sperm is secreted by the dictyosome complex, involving the tacit assumption that this complex is the homologue of the Golgi-apparatus. Recently this homology has been questioned. Parat 1 and his coworkers, for example, consider the dictyosomes to be chondriosomes of large and active type, partly for the reason that the dictyosomes (Parat's “lepidosomes”) of the living cell stain with Janus green nearly as vigorously as the chondriosomes. Both the staining reaction and the implied homology have been doubted. 2 , 3 It therefore seemed desirable to reinvestigate the problem.

The present account presents some results of intra-vitam staining of metamorphosing male germ cells of various insects. The species used were 2 Orthoptera of the family Acrididae, Rhomaleum micropterurn and Melanoplus femur-rubrum, and 3 gryllid Orthoptera, Œcanthus nigricornis, Nemobius fasciatus and Gryllus assimilis var. *check*luctuosus. In the experiments with Janus green an hemipter, Euschistus euschistoides, was also used.