An understanding of the physiological and structural development of an embryo requires a knowledge of the precise state that development has reached. Without this knowledge it is not possible to compare findings from experiments performed on different embryos or to relate them to structural changes during development.
In previous work on Acridid embryos two methods have been used in estimating the stage of development. Some authors have defined embryonic stages by their age from the time of oviposition (Slifer, 1932; Roonwal, 1936, 1937; Hong, 1968), while others have described development in a series of arbitrarily chosen stages, which are based primarily on changes in the external morphology (Steele, 1941; Jhingran, 1947; Mathée, 1951; Shulov & Pener, 1959, 1963).
The eggs of Schistocerca gregaria are laid in pods of 30–90. Pods were collected and kept under constant conditions in order to investigate the development of the embryonic muscle (Tyrer, 1968, 1969).