Females, homozygous for scra³, lay morphologically normal eggs that fail to hatch. These mutant embryos exhibit cellularisation defects. scra³/scra³-derived embryos completely lack separated pole cells. Numerous pole cell nuclei are present at the posterior pole, but no plasma membranes separate them from the rest of the blastoderm and no membranes are observed between the nuclei. These embryos form pole cells transiently, but the furrows separating them from the rest of the embryo regress at the end of each nuclear cycle.

Eggs derived from homozygous females form a syncytial blastoderm and begin to cellularise normally, but cellularisation is often not completed. Gastrulation takes place but is usually very abnormal. The embryos form pieces of cuticle.