Composite eggs and Siamese twins in paedogenetic gall midges

Several types of composite eggs were found in two species of paedogenetic gall midges. One composite egg, consisting of two blastoderms, was cultured in vitro, and its development was recorded on film. Two other composite eggs were fixed in the oocyte stage; each contained two nurse chambers, two egg chambers and one oocyte nucleus. Some other ‘eggs’ are described, which consisted merely of a nurse chamber or of one or two oocytes and of the follicular epithelium. It is argued that the formation of composite eggs and incomplete eggs must be due to errors in the formation of the oocyte-nurse cell complexes. The article also describes three Siamese twins in larval stage which were found in two paedogenetic gall-midge species. In two twins the larvae were linked posterior–posterior, while in the third they were connected anterior–anterior. It is assumed that the Siamese twin-larvae evolved from composite eggs.