Antibodies raised against esterase-4 and esterase-5 from Drosophila mojavensis were coupled to Protein A-Sepharose CL-4B to prepare high-efficiency immunomatrices used for their purification. Final purification was achieved by anion-exchange h.p.l.c., in the case of esterase-5 followed by gel-filtration h.p.l.c. The resultant esterase preparations were homogeneous, as judged by gel-filtration h.p.l.c., SDS/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis and non-denaturing gel electrophoresis. Esterase-4 and esterase-5 are the products of a duplicated gene. They are differently localized in the insect's body and expressed in different periods during development. Although both enzymes exhibit little immunological cross-reactivity, their amino acid compositions show few significant differences and their N-terminal sequences are largely identical, which clearly show their common origin.