The expression of cell surface protein 2F5 changes dynamically in space and time during morphogenesis of the Manduca wing pattern. Two cell types (generalized epithelial cells and scale precursors) rearrange within each of the two epithelial monolayers of the wing to form periodic rows of scale cells. These two monolayers also interact with each other during a brief period of adult development. Each cell type shows a different pattern of protein 2F5 expression during cell rearrangement and during interaction of the two wing monolayers. Before and after these morphogenetic movements of epithelial cells, the protein is expressed on only a small population of wing cells. In abdominal epithelia where scale cells are also present but are not arranged in periodic rows, the expression pattern of the surface protein is temporally and spatially very different. An earlier study (Nardi and Magee-Adams, Dev. Biol., 116, 278-290, 1986) had shown that basal processes only extend from epithelial cells during their period of rearrangement within a monolayer and during the transient apposition of the wing's upper and lower monolayers. The differential distribution of protein 2F5 on lateral surfaces and basal processes of scale precursor cells and generalized epithelial cells may account in part for their orderly segregation into alternating rows as well as for the transient interaction of the two wing monolayers.