Preliminary Notes on the Development of the Wings in Normal and Mutant Strains of Drosophila

Many mutations are known which affect the structure of the wings in Drosophila, and that organ therefore appears favorable for investigations on the developmental effects of genes.Technique.-Pupae were fixed in boiling water, which seems as satisfac- tory as any more refined fixative, owing to the impermeability of the pupal chitin.The wings were dissected off and stained in Delafield's haema- toxylin, and examined both as whole mounts and sectioned at 7 A. The series of normal wings were accurately timed at 25°C.; the others were not timed, but the developmental series were constructed by comparison with the normal stages.Timing of some of the mutant types will be under- taken in the near future.The great variability in developmental timing noted by Goldschmidt was not found in this material.