Summary
The compound eyes of two species of damsel-flies, Ishunura senegalensis and Cersion calamorum, were examined by electron microscopy. Each ommatidium is composed of eight retinula cells which are semistratified in the receptor layer. The retinula cells are divided into four types from the difference of levels in the rhabdom formation; one distal large cell having the rhabdomere only in the distal layer, four middle cells forming the rhabdom in the middle layer, two proximal cells making up the rhabdom in the proximal layer and one distal small cell having no rhabdomere in any layers. In addition, the lamina ganglionaris was partly observed. Some retinula axons terminate at an different level from the other axons. The functional differentiation among these different types of cells is discussed with relation to the analysis of the polarized light and the discrimination of the diffraction images.
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This work is supported by a grant from the U.S. Army Research and Development Group (Far East), Department of the Army (DA-CRD-AG-S29-544-67-G61).
The authors wish to express their gratitude to Drs. H. Morita and H. Tateda for their helpful discussions throughout this study.
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Ninomiya, N., Tominaga, Y. & Kuwabara, M. The fine structure of the compound eye of a damsel-fly. Z. Zellforsch. 98, 17–32 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00344505
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00344505