Affected embryos from 5 day old or younger females show a range of abdominal segmentation defects, with loss or fusion of some or all of the abdominal segments. Pole cells fail to form. 1% of eggs hatch and develop into viable but sterile adults, lacking germ cells. Females more than 7 days old lay eggs which never hatch: 90% of the embryos completely lack abdominal segments. Egg chambers from homozygous females show occasional egg chambers with supernumerary germ cells.