scholarly journals Spectral tuning and the visual ecology of mantis shrimps

2000 ◽  
Vol 355 (1401) ◽  
pp. 1263-1267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas W. Cronin ◽  
N. Justin Marshall ◽  
Roy L. Caldwell
Keyword(s):  
Motion Detection ◽  
Visual Pigment ◽  
Spatial Vision ◽  
Compound Eyes ◽  
Polarization Vision ◽  
Spectral Tuning ◽  
Maximum Coverage ◽  
Visual Systems ◽  
Visual Tasks

The compound eyes of mantis shrimps (stomatopod crustaceans) include an unparalleled diversity of visual pigments and spectral receptor classes in retinas of each species. We compared the visual pigment and spectral receptor classes of 12 species of gonodactyloid stomatopods from a variety of photic environments, from intertidal to deep water (> 50 m), to learn how spectral tuning in the different photoreceptor types is modified within different photic environments. Results show that receptors of the peripheral photoreceptors, those outside the midband which are responsible for standard visual tasks such as spatial vision and motion detection, reveal the well–known pattern of decreasing λ max with increasing depth. Receptors of midband rows 5 and 6, which are specialized for polarization vision, are similar in all species, having visual λ max –values near 500 nm, independent of depth. Finally, the spectral receptors of midband rows 1 to 4 are tuned for maximum coverage of the spectrum of irradiance available in the habitat of each species. The quality of the visual worlds experienced by each species we studied must vary considerably, but all appear to exploit the full capabilities offered by their complex visual systems.

scholarly journals Ocellar spatial vision in Myrmecia ants

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhavana Penmetcha ◽  
Yuri Ogawa ◽  
Laura A. Ryan ◽  
Nathan S. Hart ◽  
Ajay Narendra
Keyword(s):  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Contrast Sensitivity ◽  
Spatial Vision ◽  
Flight Time ◽  
Resolving Power ◽  
Compound Eyes ◽  
Pattern Electroretinography ◽  
Visual Systems ◽  
Visual Properties ◽  
European Honeybee

In addition to the compound eyes, insects possess simple eyes known as ocelli. Input from the ocelli modulates optomotor responses, flight-time initiation, and phototactic responses—behaviours that are mediated predominantly by the compound eyes. In this study, using pattern electroretinography (pERG), we investigated the contribution of the compound eyes to ocellar spatial vision in the diurnal Australian bull ant Myrmecia tarsata by measuring the contrast sensitivity and spatial resolving power of the ocellar second-order neurons under various occlusion conditions. Furthermore, in four species of Myrmecia ants active at different times of the day, and in European honeybee Apis mellifera, we characterized the ocellar visual properties when both visual systems were available. Among the ants, we found that the time of activity had no significant effect on ocellar spatial vision. Comparing day-active ants and the honeybee we did not find any significant effect of locomotion on ocellar spatial vision. In M. tarsata, when the compound eyes were occluded, the amplitude of the pERG signal from the ocelli reduced by three times compared to conditions when the compound eyes were available. The signals from the compound eyes maintained the maximum contrast sensitivity of the ocelli as 13 (7.7%), and the spatial resolving power as 0.29 cpd. We conclude that ocellar spatial vison improves significantly with input from the compound eyes, with a noticeably larger improvement in contrast sensitivity than in spatial resolving power.

scholarly journals Ocellar spatial vision in Myrmecia ants

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhavana Penmetcha ◽  
Yuri Ogawa ◽  
Laura A Ryan ◽  
Nathan S Hart ◽  
Ajay Narendra
Keyword(s):  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Contrast Sensitivity ◽  
Spatial Vision ◽  
Flight Time ◽  
Resolving Power ◽  
Compound Eyes ◽  
Pattern Electroretinography ◽  
Visual Systems ◽  
Visual Properties ◽  
European Honeybee

In addition to the compound eyes insects possess simple eyes known as ocelli. Input from the ocelli modulates optomotor responses, flight-time initiation and phototactic responses, behaviours that are predominantly mediated by the compound eyes. In this study, using pattern electroretinography (pERG), we investigated the contribution of the compound eyes to ocellar spatial vision in the diurnal Australian bull ant, Myrmecia tarsata by measuring the contrast sensitivity and spatial resolving power of the ocellar second-order neurons under various occlusion conditions. Furthermore, in four species of Myrmecia ants active at different times of the day and in European honeybee, Apis mellifera, we characterized the ocellar visual properties when both visual systems were available. Among the ants, we found that the time of activity had no significant effect on ocellar spatial vision. Comparing day-active ants and the honeybee we did not find any significant effect of locomotion on ocellar spatial vision. In M. tarsata, when the compound eyes were occluded, the amplitude of the pERG signal from the ocelli reduced by three times compared to conditions when the compound eyes were available. The signals from the compound eyes maintained the maximum contrast sensitivity of the ocelli as 13 (7.7%), and the spatial resolving power as 0.29 cpd. We conclude that ocellar spatial vison improves significantly with input from the compound eyes, with a noticeably larger improvement in contrast sensitivity than in spatial resolving power.

scholarly journals Evolution of crab eye structures and the utility of ommatidia morphology in resolving phylogeny

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Luque ◽  
W. Ted Allison ◽  
Heather D. Bracken-Grissom ◽  
Kelsey M. Jenkins ◽  
A. Richard Palmer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Pigment ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Compound Eye ◽  
Compound Eyes ◽  
Decapod Crustaceans ◽  
Phylogenetic Studies ◽  
Visual Systems ◽  
Ideal Study ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Visual Pigment Evolution

ABSTRACTImage-forming compound eyes are such a valuable adaptation that similar visual systems have evolved independently across crustaceans. But if different compound eye types have evolved independently multiple times, how useful are eye structures and ommatidia morphology for resolving phylogenetic relationships? Crabs are ideal study organisms to explore these questions because they have a good fossil record extending back into the Jurassic, they possess a great variety of optical designs, and details of eye form can be compared between extant and fossil groups. True crabs, or Brachyura, have been traditionally divided into two groups based on the position of the sexual openings in males and females: the so-called ‘Podotremata’ (females bearing their sexual openings on the legs), and the Eubrachyura, or ‘higher’ true crabs (females bearing their sexual openings on the thorax). Although Eubrachyura appears to be monophyletic, the monophyly of podotreme crabs remains controversial and therefore requires exploration of new character systems. The earliest podotremous lineages share the plesiomorphic condition of ‘mirror’ reflecting superposition eyes with most shrimp, lobsters, and anomurans (false crabs and allies). The optical mechanisms of fossil and extant podotreme groups more closely related to Eubrachyura, however, are still poorly investigated. To better judge the phylogenetic utility of compound eye form, we investigated the distribution of eye types in fossil and extant podotreme crabs. Our findings suggest the plesiomorphic ‘mirror’ eyes—seen in most decapod crustaceans including the earliest true crabs—has been lost in several ‘higher’ podotremes and in eubrachyurans. We conclude that the secondary retention of larval apposition eyes has existed in eubrachyurans and some podotremes since at least the Early Cretaceous, and that the distribution of eye types among true crabs supports a paraphyletic podotreme grade, as suggested by recent molecular and morphological phylogenetic studies. We also review photoreceptor structure and visual pigment evolution, currently known in crabs exclusively from eubrachyuran representatives. These topics are critical for future expansion of research on podotremes to deeply investigate the homology of eye types across crabs.

scholarly journals Single and Multiple Visual Systems in Arthropods

1968 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Wald
Keyword(s):  
Spectral Sensitivity ◽  
Visual Pigment ◽  
Light Adaptation ◽  
Procambarus Clarkii ◽  
Color Discrimination ◽  
Visual Pigments ◽  
Green Crab ◽  
Spider Crab ◽  
Color Adaptation ◽  
Visual Systems

Extraction of two visual pigments from crayfish eyes prompted an electrophysiological examination of the role of visual pigments in the compound eyes of six arthropods. The intact animals were used; in crayfishes isolated eyestalks also. Thresholds were measured in terms of the absolute or relative numbers of photons per flash at various wavelengths needed to evoke a constant amplitude of electroretinogram, usually 50 µv. Two species of crayfish, as well as the green crab, possess blue- and red-sensitive receptors apparently arranged for color discrimination. In the northern crayfish, Orconectes virilis, the spectral sensitivity of the dark-adapted eye is maximal at about 550 mµ, and on adaptation to bright red or blue lights breaks into two functions with λmax respectively at about 435 and 565 mµ, apparently emanating from different receptors. The swamp crayfish, Procambarus clarkii, displays a maximum sensitivity when dark-adapted at about 570 mµ, that breaks on color adaptation into blue- and red-sensitive functions with λmax about 450 and 575 mµ, again involving different receptors. Similarly the green crab, Carcinides maenas, presents a dark-adapted sensitivity maximal at about 510 mµ that divides on color adaptation into sensitivity curves maximal near 425 and 565 mµ. Each of these organisms thus possesses an apparatus adequate for at least two-color vision, resembling that of human green-blinds (deuteranopes). The visual pigments of the red-sensitive systems have been extracted from the crayfish eyes. The horse-shoe crab, Limulus, and the lobster each possesses a single visual system, with λmax respectively at 520 and 525 mµ. Each of these is invariant with color adaptation. In each case the visual pigment had already been identified in extracts. The spider crab, Libinia emarginata, presents another variation. It possesses two visual systems apparently differentiated, not for color discrimination but for use in dim and bright light, like vertebrate rods and cones. The spectral sensitivity of the dark-adapted eye is maximal at about 490 mµ and on light adaptation, whether to blue, red, or white light, is displaced toward shorter wavelengths in what is essentially a reverse Purkinje shift. In all these animals dark adaptation appears to involve two phases: a rapid, hyperbolic fall of log threshold associated probably with visual pigment regeneration, followed by a slow, almost linear fall of log threshold that may be associated with pigment migration.

Molecular Basis of Spectral Tuning in the Newt Short Wavelength Sensitive Visual Pigment†

Biochemistry ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 42 (20) ◽  
pp. 6025-6034 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusuke Takahashi ◽  
Thomas G. Ebrey
Keyword(s):  
Visual Pigment ◽  
Short Wavelength ◽  
Molecular Basis ◽  
Spectral Tuning

scholarly journals Filtering and polychromatic vision in mantis shrimps: themes in visible and ultraviolet vision

2014 ◽  
Vol 369 (1636) ◽  
pp. 20130032 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas W. Cronin ◽  
Michael J. Bok ◽  
N. Justin Marshall ◽  
Roy L. Caldwell
Keyword(s):  
Circular Polarization ◽  
Spectral Range ◽  
Colour Vision ◽  
Spatial Vision ◽  
Polarization Vision ◽  
Optical Elements ◽  
Retinal Photoreceptors ◽  
Functional Classes ◽  
Ultraviolet Vision ◽  
Visible Wavelengths

Stomatopod crustaceans have the most complex and diverse assortment of retinal photoreceptors of any animals, with 16 functional classes. The receptor classes are subdivided into sets responsible for ultraviolet vision, spatial vision, colour vision and polarization vision. Many of these receptor classes are spectrally tuned by filtering pigments located in photoreceptors or overlying optical elements. At visible wavelengths, carotenoproteins or similar substances are packed into vesicles used either as serial, intrarhabdomal filters or lateral filters. A single retina may contain a diversity of these filtering pigments paired with specific photoreceptors, and the pigments used vary between and within species both taxonomically and ecologically. Ultraviolet-filtering pigments in the crystalline cones serve to tune ultraviolet vision in these animals as well, and some ultraviolet receptors themselves act as birefringent filters to enable circular polarization vision. Stomatopods have reached an evolutionary extreme in their use of filter mechanisms to tune photoreception to habitat and behaviour, allowing them to extend the spectral range of their vision both deeper into the ultraviolet and further into the red.

scholarly journals Why did the UV-A-induced photoluminescent blue-green glow in trilobite eyes and exoskeletons not cause problems for trilobites?

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brigitte Schoenemann ◽  
Euan N.K. Clarkson ◽  
Gábor Horváth
Keyword(s):  
High Refractive Index ◽  
Optical Quality ◽  
Aquatic Systems ◽  
Relevant Factor ◽  
Animal Kingdom ◽  
Receptor Cells ◽  
Visual Systems ◽  
Different Depths ◽  
The Difference

The calcitic lenses in the eyes of Palaeozoic trilobites are unique in the animal kingdom, although the use of calcite would have conveyed great advantages for vision in aquatic systems. Calcite lenses are transparent, and due to their high refractive index they would facilitate the focusing of light. In some respects, however, calcite lenses bear evident disadvantages. Birefringence would cause double images at different depths, but this is not a problem for trilobites since the difference in the paths of the ordinary and extraordinary rays is less than the diameter of the receptor cells. Another point, not discussed hitherto, is that calcite fluoresces when illuminated with UV-A. Here we show experimentally that calcite lenses fluoresce, and we discuss why fluorescence does not diminish the optical quality of these lenses and the image formed by them. In the environments in which the trilobites lived, UV-A would not have been a relevant factor, and thus fluorescence would not have disturbed or confused their visual system. We also argue that whatever the reason was that calcite was never again used successfully in the visual systems of aquatic arthropods, it was not fluorescence.

scholarly journals Scaling of Discomfort Sensations in the Conditions of Performing Office Visual Tasks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Boos ◽  
Vladimir Budak ◽  
Ekaterina Ilyina ◽  
Tatyana Meshkova
Keyword(s):  
Physiological Model ◽  
Lighting Design ◽  
Field Of View ◽  
Distance Threshold ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Visual Tasks ◽  
Uniform Background ◽  
New Criterion ◽  
Work Done

Currently, computer graphics programs (CG) as a tool for designing lighting installations allows us to move to a fundamentally new approach to assessing the quality of lighting: to move away from designing based on illuminance values to designing based on synthetic images or lighting design. Modern CG programs allow us to calculate the spatial-angular distribution of luminance (SADL). Still, some criterion is needed for the assessment, which will allow us to uniquely determine the quality of lighting in terms of luminance distribution. In this paper, we consider constructing a physiological model of the visual sense scale for assessing the quality of lighting according to SADL based on an experiment to assess visual sense from the luminance of a light source in the field of view on a uniform background with different luminance. As a result of the work done, it is proposed to use a scale of sensations in the form of a certain space. The axis of space is the threshold contrast for the resulting sense of discomfort, depending on the observation conditions. All other sensations are separated from the axis at some distance. Threshold contrasts, at which visual sensations arise within the framework of the proposed scale, can be used in the future to assess the storm in the lighting scene using a new criterion and will allow analysing the quality of lighting using CG methods.

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