The Identity of the So-called Crescent Cell in the Hemolymph of the Cockroach, Gromphadorhina portentosa (Schaum) (Dictyoptera: Blaberidae)

Abstract

In 1965, Ritter reported unusual anucleate, crescent-shaped cells in the hemolymph of the hissing roach, Gromphadorhina portentosa and claimed that each of these cells was associated with a small, flat cell with scant cytoplasmic content, which is eventually ingested by the crescent cell, thus suggesting that these latter cells were phagocytic in nature. Ritter at that time discounted the possibility that the “alien” small cell represented an extruded nucleus of the crescent cell itself, and concluded that there was no evidence of the “functional integration between the ingested nucleus and its adopted cytoplasm.” Although Ritter's earlier erroneous observation that the crescent cell was an anucleate cell phagocytozing another small cell was corrected (Ritter and Blissit 1969), the identity of this cell has remained controversial to date. Jones (1975) thought that they were possibly spherulocytes with an extremely eccentric nucleus, and later (Jones 1979) considered them as a separate category of hemocytes. I also did not categorize them under any of the several morphologically distinct hemocyte types (Gupta 1979a, b). Most recently (Gupta 1985), while preparing a review on insect hemocytes, I decided to resolve the problem of the identity of this mysterious cell. This paper reports that these so-called crescent cells are indeed oenocytoids (OEs). © 1985, Japan Mendel Society, International Society of Cytology. All rights reserved.