Composite eggs in non-paedogenetic gall midges (Cecidomyiidae, Diptera).

A new type of composite eggs was found in the non-paedogenetic gall midgesMikiola fagi andRhabdophaga rosaria. Composite eggs of this type contained two or three nurse chambers and one egg chamber with one oocyte nucleus. In all composite eggs examined only one nurse chamber developed normally, while the others, regardless of their number and position within a composite egg, were arrested in their growth. It is assumed that the arrested nurse chambers, contrary to normally developing ones, are deficient in generative nuclei and thus are derived exclusively from mesodermal cells.