Maturation of the male reproductive system during recovery
In order to gain insights into the mechanistic basis of the recovery process we measured changes in male accessory gland (AG) size during the recovery process. We further checked for the presence of sperm in the seminal vesicles (SVs) and measured SV size and sperm viability to test the effects of elevated developmental temperatures on sperm production and quality. All observations were done under a microscope (ZEISS, AxioVision Software) with an Olympus SC50 5-megapixel color microscope camera; at a 50X amplification. Further measurements (measurements of the organ areas, wing length and sperm head counts) were carried out with ImageJ (Wayne Rasband).