The Arneth believed that the number of lobes increase as the neutrophil ages. This is not entirely true. The number of lobes in a neutrophil nucleus is decided at the band stage or earlier. After release the neutrophil nuclear segmentation may continue till the cell achieves the number of lobes it is programmed to reach. A cell that is programmed to become a three lobed neutrophil and a cell that is programmed to become a five lobed neutrophil both start as band forms but segmentation in the former stops at three lobes. The average number of neutophil lobes in a normal peripheral smear is 2.5-3.3. The definition of lobes differs from observer to observer (figure 2 and 3)