IAC-USNC Methods in Neuroscience- Manduca Sexta

Ecdysis Larvae Dissection 1 Dissection 2
Recording 1 Recording 2 Recording 3 Manduca Home

Below are photos of some of the key steps in the dissection of the Manduca larva down to the level of the ventral nerve cord.

Dissection- first steps Click HERE for a 2 minute video (18.5MB)
Cutting the horn off the posterior end of an anesthetized Manduca larva.	Horn shown by blue arrow.	Cut along entire dorsal midline.
All the way to the other end.	Using dissection pins to pull back and pin down.
Half way done.	Close up view of the Manduca pinned down at the anterior end.	Pinning out the posterior end.
Completely pinned out.	Removing the gut.	Cuts need to be made underneath to free the gut from the connecting tissue.
The cutting continues all the way to the the anterior end.
		This is the end result of the first dissection. Go to the "dissection 2" page to see how the nerve cord is removed.