Efferent system of the lateral ocellus in the dragonfly: Its relationships with the ocellar afferent units, the compound eyes, and the wing sensory system

1978 ◽  
Vol 125 (4) ◽  
pp. 341-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroaki Kondo
Author(s):  
G. Jacobs ◽  
F. Theunissen

In order to understand how the algorithms underlying neural computation are implemented within any neural system, it is necessary to understand details of the anatomy, physiology and global organization of the neurons from which the system is constructed. Information is represented in neural systems by patterns of activity that vary in both their spatial extent and in the time domain. One of the great challenges to microscopists is to devise methods for imaging these patterns of activity and to correlate them with the underlying neuroanatomy and physiology. We have addressed this problem by using a combination of three dimensional reconstruction techniques, quantitative analysis and computer visualization techniques to build a probabilistic atlas of a neural map in an insect sensory system. The principal goal of this study was to derive a quantitative representation of the map, based on a uniform sample of afferents that was of sufficient size to allow statistically meaningful analyses of the relationships between structure and function.


Author(s):  
Maria Anna Pabst

In addition to the compound eyes, honeybees have three dorsal ocelli on the vertex of the head. Each ocellus has about 800 elongated photoreceptor cells. They are paired and the distal segment of each pair bears densely packed microvilli forming together a platelike fused rhabdom. Beneath a common cuticular lens a single layer of corneagenous cells is present.Ultrastructural studies were made of the retina of praepupae, different pupal stages and adult worker bees by thin sections and freeze-etch preparations. In praepupae the ocellar anlage consists of a conical group of epidermal cells that differentiate to photoreceptor cells, glial cells and corneagenous cells. Some photoreceptor cells are already paired and show disarrayed microvilli with circularly ordered filaments inside. In ocelli of 2-day-old pupae, when a retinogenous and a lentinogenous cell layer can be clearly distinguished, cell membranes of the distal part of two photoreceptor cells begin to interdigitate with each other and so start to form the definitive microvilli. At the beginning the microvilli often occupy the whole width of the developing rhabdom (Fig. 1).


2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 577-587
Author(s):  
Vladimir Kaplin

Abstract The fauna of bristletails of the genus Lepismachilis Verhoeff, 1910 in Montenegro and Serbia includes only one species L. (Berlesilis) targionii (Grassi, 1887) with 2 + 2 eversible vesicles on abdominal urocoxites II–VI. Three new species of this genus are described: L. (Lepismachilis) prijepolja sp. nov., L. (Lepismachilis) limensa sp. nov. from Serbia, and L. (Lepismachilis) alexandrae sp. nov. from Montenegro. All described new species belong to the species group of the subgenus Lepismachilis s. str. with 2 + 2 eversible vesicles on abdominal urocoxites II–V. Lepismachilis prijepolja sp. nov. differs from L. y-signata Kratochvíl, 1945 and L. notata Stach, 1919 by the color, drawings and ratios of the compound eyes; ratios of sensory field on fore femur of male, number of divisions of ovipositor. Lepismachilis limensa sp. nov. differs from L. hauseri Bitsch, 1974 and L. abchasica Kaplin, 2017 by ratios of paired ocelli, sensory field on fore femur of male; ratios and chaetotaxy of maxillary and labial palps. Lepismachilis alexandrae sp. nov. differs from L. abchasica by the drawings of the compound eyes; ratios of paired ocelli, sensory field on fore femur of male; number of divisions of the parameres and gonapophyses. A list of the Machilidae occurring in Balkan Peninsula is also provided.


Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 966 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Costanzo ◽  
Giuseppe De Maria ◽  
Ciro Natale ◽  
Salvatore Pirozzi

This paper presents the design and calibration of a new force/tactile sensor for robotic applications. The sensor is suitably designed to provide the robotic grasping device with a sensory system mimicking the human sense of touch, namely, a device sensitive to contact forces, object slip and object geometry. This type of perception information is of paramount importance not only in dexterous manipulation but even in simple grasping tasks, especially when objects are fragile, such that only a minimum amount of grasping force can be applied to hold the object without damaging it. Moreover, sensing only forces and not moments can be very limiting to securely grasp an object when it is grasped far from its center of gravity. Therefore, the perception of torsional moments is a key requirement of the designed sensor. Furthermore, the sensor is also the mechanical interface between the gripper and the manipulated object, therefore its design should consider also the requirements for a correct holding of the object. The most relevant of such requirements is the necessity to hold a torsional moment, therefore a soft distributed contact is necessary. The presence of a soft contact poses a number of challenges in the calibration of the sensor, and that is another contribution of this work. Experimental validation is provided in real grasping tasks with two sensors mounted on an industrial gripper.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sándor Kecskeméti ◽  
András Geösel ◽  
József Fail ◽  
Ádám Egri

AbstractCertain fungus gnats, like Lycoriella ingenua are notorious pests in agriculture, especially in mushroom production. While larvae cause mainly direct crop damage, adults are vectors of several dangerous fungal pathogens. To promote the development of pesticide-free management methods, such as light trapping, we measured the spectral sensitivity of L. ingenua compound eyes with electroretinography and performed two different behavioural experiments to reveal the wavelength dependence of phototaxis in this species. The spectral sensitivity of the compound eyes is bimodal with peaks at 370 nm (UV) and 526 nm (green). Behavioural experiments showed that attraction to light as a function of wavelength depends on light intensity. In our first experiment, where the minimal photon flux (105–109 photons/cm2/s) needed for eliciting a phototactic response was determined wavelength by wavelength, phototaxis was strongest in the green spectral range (~526 nm). In the other behavioural experiment, where wavelength preference was tested under a higher but constant light intensity (~1013 photons/cm2/s), the highest attraction was elicited by UV wavelengths (398 nm). Our results suggest that both UV and green are important spectral regions for L. ingenua thus we recommend to use both UV (~370-398 nm) and green (~526 nm) for trapping these insects.


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