Optics and Evolution of the Compound Eye

Nilsson, Dan-Eric

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-74082-4_3

Cited by 165 publications

(193 citation statements)

References 121 publications

(103 reference statements)

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“…Usually the rhabdomeres, i.e. the parts of the photoreceptors containing the visual pigments, of an ommatidium are fused together, so forming together one optical waveguide, the case in the so-called apposition eyes of bees and butterflies; a comparable situation exists in the optical superposition eyes of moths (Nilsson, 1989).…”

Section: Visual Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Insect retinal pigments: Spectral characteristics and physiological functions

Stavenga

1995

Progress in Retinal and Eye Research

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Section: Visual Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Insect retinal pigments: Spectral characteristics and physiological functions

Stavenga

1995

Progress in Retinal and Eye Research

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“…Each ommatidium is composed of a facet lens, a (crystalline) cone, a set of photoreceptors and surrounding pigment cells (for structural details, see e.g. Nilsson 1989). In this review I will survey how the pigments of insect eyes affect both the appearance and the function of the eyes, i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Colour in the eyes of insects

Stavenga

2002

Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Sensory, Neural, and Behav

107

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Many insect species have darkly coloured eyes, but distinct colours or patterns are frequently featured. A number of exemplary cases of flies and butterflies are discussed to illustrate our present knowledge of the physical basis of eye colours, their functional background, and the implications for insect colour vision. The screening pigments in the pigment cells commonly determine the eye colour. The red screening pigments of fly eyes and the dorsal eye regions of dragonflies allow stray light to photochemically restore photoconverted visual pigments. A similar role is played by yellow pigment granules inside the photoreceptor cells which function as a light-controlling pupil. Most insect eyes contain black screening pigments which prevent stray light to produce background noise in the photoreceptors. The eyes of tabanid flies are marked by strong metallic colours, due to multilayers in the corneal facet lenses. The corneal multilayers in the gold-green eyes of the deer fly Chrysops relictus reduce the lens transmission in the orange-green, thus narrowing the sensitivity spectrum of photoreceptors having a green absorbing rhodopsin. The tapetum in the eyes of butterflies probably enhances the spectral sensitivity of proximal long-wavelength photoreceptors. Pigment granules lining the rhabdom fine-tune the sensitivity spectra.

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“…Insects have evolved several sub-types of compound eyes, including apposition, superposition, and neural superposition eyes. The review of these eye types is beyond the scope of this publication (but see Nilsson 1989 andNilsson 2002 for comprehensive reviews on this topic), but we will give a few examples of insect eyes that have evolved to excel in specific ways.…”

Section: Basic Functional Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2), one may wonder which, if any, factors may have imposed modification. Nonetheless, the body of comparative research on compound-eye structure is considerable (Nilsson 1989;Oakley 2003;Meinertzhagen 1991;Bitsch and Bitsch 2005;Land 1991;Land et al 1999). After all, with at least 750,000 species, insects were given many opportunities for "evolutionary tinkering" (Jacob 1977).…”

Section: Reduction and Deconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of Insect Eyes: Tales of Ancient Heritage, Deconstruction, Reconstruction, Remodeling, and Recycling

Buschbeck

Friedrich

2008

Evo Edu Outreach

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The visual organs of insects are known for their impressive evolutionary conservation. Compound eyes built from ommatidia with four cone cells are now accepted to date back to the last common ancestor of insects and crustaceans. In species as different as fruit flies and tadpole shrimps, the stepwise cellular patterning steps of the early compound eye exhibit detailed similarities implying 500 million years of developmental conservation. Strikingly, there is also a cryptic diversity of insect visual organs, which gives proof to evolution's versatility in molding even the most tenacious structures into something new. We explore this fascinating aspect in regard to the structure and function of a variety of different insect eyes. This includes work on the unique compound-single-chamber combination eye of twistedwinged insects and the bizarre evolutionary trajectories of specialized larval eyes in endopterygote insects.

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Optics and Evolution of the Compound Eye

Cited by 165 publications

References 121 publications

Insect retinal pigments: Spectral characteristics and physiological functions

Insect retinal pigments: Spectral characteristics and physiological functions

Colour in the eyes of insects

Evolution of Insect Eyes: Tales of Ancient Heritage, Deconstruction, Reconstruction, Remodeling, and Recycling

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