Student Project Figures Figure 5 Figure 5. Overview of Aiptasia embryonic and larval development using differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy, sourced from Bucher et al (2016). The final panel (N) shows Aiptasia larva at ten days post-fertilization (dpf). At this stage in development, only minor morphological changes occur where the endoderm and ectoderm both thin to expand the gastric cavity. From here, a layer of mesoglea is produced and the larvae begins to resemble the adult polyp form at approximately 21 dpf. Figure 4 Figure 5