Drosophila melanogaster normally have six thoracic legs and no abdominal legs. However, one or two legs often appear in the first abdominal segment of bithoraxoid mutants. The extent to which these extra legs develop is determined both by the cis-regulatory action of bithoraxoid lesions on Ultrabithorax and by the number of copies of the adjacent homeotic gene abdominal-A. The bithoraxoid region does not cis-regulate abdominal-A.