Ecdysteroid titres during ovarian and embryonic development inBlaberus craniifer

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Abstract
InBlaberus craniifer, the maturation of the oocytes is accompanied by morphological modifications of the surrounding follicular cells and by variations in the ecdysteroid titre. Before the follicular cells form the chorion, they synthesise ecdysteroids which pass into the terminal oocytes to be stored. During the secretion of the chorion, before the release of the oocytes, one observes a decrease of the ecdysteroid titre in the ovaries. The hormonal titres in ovaries and haemolymph fluctuate in parallel, probably because ovaries “leak” into the haemolymph. The terminal oocyte of each ovariole is deposited into the incubating pouch where the entire embryonic development takes place. There is first a decrease of the ecdysteroids synthesised by the follicular cells and stored in the eggs. One then observes 3 ecdysteroid peaks during each of the 2 cycles of the development. During the first cycle, the first peak coincides with the end of the metamerisation, the second peak with the secretion of the first cuticle and the third with the transition between the first and the second cycle. For the second cycle, the first peak coincides with the loss of the capacity to regenerate, the second with the secretion of the second cuticle and the third with the hatching period. The third peak of each of these 2 cycles is atypical compared with what is known of the larval cycles. The analysis of the hatching peak has shown that it is principally composed of a compound more polar than α-ecdysone