hh is expressed strongly in the anterior escort cells, and weakly in the posterior escort cells

In third instar larval abdominal segments, expressed in the posterior compartment, in the posterior dorsal histoblast nest, and in a posterior subset of the cells in the ventral histoblast nests. In adult abdominal segments, expressed in the posterior compartment.

EcollacZ^hh-P30 expression is thought to reflect hh expression in late third instar wing, leg, antennal, eye, and male genital imaginal discs. It is also expressed in a striped embryonic expression pattern characteristic of a segment polarity gene.