| imaginal | 1. Characterised by imagination; imaginative; also, given to the use or rhetorical figures or imagins. 2. <zoology> Of or pertaining to an imago. Imaginal disks, masses of hypodermic cells, carried by the larvae of some insects after leaving the egg, from which masses the wings and legs of the adult are subsequently formed. Origin: L. Imaginalis. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| imaginal disc | Epithelial infoldings in the larvae of holometabolous insects (e.g. Lepidoptera, Diptera) that rapidly develop into adult appendages (legs, antennae, wings etc.) during metamorphosis from larval to adult form. By implanting discs into the haemocoele of an adult insect their differentiation can be blocked, though their determination remains unchanged except occasionally (transdetermination). The hierarchy of transdetermination has been studied in great detail in Drosophila. (11 Mar 1998) |