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Surgical lesion of the anterior optic tract abolishes polarotaxis in tethered flying locusts, Schistocerca gregaria

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Abstract

Many insects can detect the polarization pattern of the blue sky and rely on polarization vision for sky compass orientation. In laboratory experiments, tethered flying locusts perform periodic changes in flight behavior under a slowly rotating polarizer even if one eye is painted black. Anatomical tracing studies and intracellular recordings have suggested that the polarization vision pathway in the locust brain involves the anterior optic tract and tubercle, the lateral accessory lobe, and the central complex of the brain. To investigate whether visual pathways through the anterior optic tract mediate polarotaxis in the desert locust, we transected the tract on one side and tested polarotaxis (1) with both eyes unoccluded and (2) with the eye of the intact hemisphere painted black. In the second group of animals, but not in the first group, polarotaxis was abolished. Sham operations did not impair polarotaxis. The experiments show that the anterior optic tract is an indispensable part of visual pathways mediating polarotaxis in the desert locust.

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Abbreviations

AOT:

Anterior optic tract

AOTu:

Anterior optic tubercle

DRA:

Dorsal rim area

FFT:

Fast Fourier transform

LD:

Light–dark

PAP:

Peroxidase–antiperoxidase

POT:

Posterior optic tract

POTu:

Posterior optic tubercle

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Acknowledgments

We thank Bianca Backasch and Iris Friedrich for assistance with the control experiments, Dr. Hans Agricola for the anti-Lom-TK II antiserum, and Drs. Michael Gewecke and Reinhard Preiss for providing the wind tunnel and yaw-torque meter. We are very grateful to Miriam Henze (University of Zurich), Sascha Gotthardt (MPI for Brain Research, Frankfurt), Stanley Heinze and Keram Pfeiffer (both University of Marburg) for valuable suggestions on the FFT. All experiments comply with the “Principles of animal care”, publication No. 86-23, revised 1985 of the National Institute of Health and with the German Animal Protection Law. This research was supported by DFG grant HO 950/16-1.

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  1. Department of Biology, Animal Physiology, Philipps-University of Marburg, 35032, Marburg, Germany

    Martina Mappes & Uwe Homberg

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  1. Martina Mappes
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  2. Uwe Homberg
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Correspondence to Uwe Homberg.

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Mappes, M., Homberg, U. Surgical lesion of the anterior optic tract abolishes polarotaxis in tethered flying locusts, Schistocerca gregaria . J Comp Physiol A 193, 43–50 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-006-0166-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-006-0166-x

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