Studies on the regulatory mechanisms of imaginal organ developments during a caste differentiation of termites

To clarify the regulatory mechanisms of the division of labor in termites, I paid attention to the developmental changes during the differentiation of the supplementary reproductives (neotenics) of some species. Especially, in Reticulitermes speratus, neotenic differentiation was induced from premature individuals by the isolation from their maternal nests, and imaginal organ developments could be observed during neotenic differentiation. Moreover, vitellogenin gene expression and juvenile hormone titer were shown to be extraordinarily high in neotenics.