In woc^rgl homozygous larvae, neuroblasts exhibit telomeric fusions, particularly in autosomes.

The brains of woc⁹⁶⁴/woc^rgl, woc⁴⁶⁸/woc^rgl, woc^B111/woc^rgl and woc²⁵¹/woc^rgl larvae show a high frequency of telomere-telomere attachments compared to controls. Single telomere attachments in which a single telomere fuses with its sister telomere, or in which a single telomere fuses with another single nonsister telomere are both seen. Double telomere attachments, where a pair of sister telomeres join with another pair are seen; both monocentric ring chromosomes and linear dicentric chromosomes are seen. In addition, multiple double telomere attachments, resulting in multicentric rings or linear chromosomes, are also seen. The average number of telomere-telomere attachments per cell is 1.67 in woc⁹⁶⁴/woc^rgl animals, 2.63 in woc⁴⁶⁸/woc^rgl animals, 1.94 in woc²⁵¹/woc^rgl animals and 1.91 in woc^B111/woc^rgl animals.

Homozygous larvae die as third instar larvae after an extended larval life of up to three weeks. Mutant larvae exhibit extremely enlarged ring glands compared to wild-type. This is due to the enlargement of the individual prothoracic gland cells. This is associated with an increase in the size of the nucleus containing giant chromosomes, often reaching the size of salivary gland polytene chromosomes. Mutant prothoracic gland fail to produce sufficient ecdysteroids and also acquire abnormal morphological features. These abnormalities include an accumulation of a large amount of lysosomes or lysosome like structures and the appearance of giant intracellular spaces in the cytoplasm. The corpus allatum appears normal. Mutant larvae of an advanced age are characterised by an up to 100 fold increase in the size of the haematopoietic organs, which occupy large portions of the body cavity. Correspondingly, there is a considerable increase in the number of free haemocytes. Mutant imaginal discs are smaller, misshapen and lack the characteristic folding pattern of the epithelial monolayer. In about 1/5 of larvae imaginal discs are not present or present in a rudimentary condition. Mutant brain hemispheres are slightly smaller than in wild-type larvae, but do nor show obvious histological differences from wild-type brains. Another phenotypic aberration is noted in the cardia, which appear to have lost their muscle mass and instead are filled with fluid. Feeding mutant larvae 20-hydroxyecdysone, removes their inability to pupate, though animals die as pupae.

Reduced viability; homozygous adults sterile, females showing an abnormal arrangement of oocyte with respect to nurse cells. In males, spermatids immotile.