Natural and synthetic materials with insect hormone activity. IV. Specific female sterility effects produced by a juvenile hormone analogue.

Abstract

The juvenile hormone of insects is known to inhibit the process of insect metamorphosis. It is also known to stimulate ovarian growth in adult females of some species. It has been found recently that some substances with juvenile hormone activity also influence embryonic development. In the bug Pyrrhocoris apterus such substances, which prevent imaginal differentiation in metamorphosis, also affect the differentiation process of embryos at a certain stage of egg development (Slama & Williams, 1966). This has been confirmed with other juvenile hormone analogues on embryonic development of silkworm eggs (Riddiford & Williams, 1967) and grasshoppers (Novak, 1967). According to the above observations eggs treated with the substances show abnormal development of the embryos, which may pass successfully through the early stages of embryogenesis but are unable to complete differentiation. Usually the embryos do not develop beyond the stage of blastokinesis and die within the egg shells.