Figure 2. Embryonic staging and developmental events in M. abdita.

Embryos are shown as lateral views: anterior is to the left, dorsal is up. Stage numbers (roughly corresponding to Bownes' stages in D. melanogaster [27]) are shown in red at the top left, and time after egg laying (AEL) in hrs:min in white at the bottom left corner of each panel. White arrows and bars indicate morphological landmarks. See main text for a detailed description, and Figure 3 for comparative timing of stages with reference to D. melanogaster.