The molt/intermolt cycle in the epidermis and other tissues of an insect Calpodes ethlius(Lepidoptera, Hesperiidae).

Tissue responses to the brain and prothoracic glands divide the 5th larval stage of Calpodes into three phases of development, characterized by growth, larval syntheses and pupal syntheses. Tissue specific patterns in the timing of nuclear events fall into one of two categories. In both, the cell number is determined mainly before the 4th to 5th ecdysis. Epidermal cells divide during the second phase coincidentally with an elevated rate of larval cuticle deposition, but in other tissues nuclear replication occurs without division during the first phase so that the cells are polyploid by the time they begin their massive larval syntheses.