There is a high coincidence between the composition of metabolome and actual developmental stages of <i>Drosophila</i> embryo.

<p>Embryos were collected at 10 time points namely 0–2, 2–4, 4–6, 6–8, 8–10, 10–12, 12–14, 14–16, 16–18, 18–20 hrs AEL. All samples were analyzed in triplicates (n = 3). (<b>A</b>) PCA score plot shows 3 main clusters namely 0–4 hrs, 4–16 hrs and 16–20 hrs AEL, which is in total agreement with the developmental stages of <i>Drosophila</i> embryo (<b>B</b>) The loading plot shows the contributions of each metabolite on the discrimination in score plot according to the distance to the origin.