Summary
The posterior median (pm) eyes of the dinopid spider Menneus unifasciatus L. Koch are described and compared with the pm eyes of Dinopis, which are highly specialised for night vision. The lenses of Menneus have F-numbers of 0.72 compared to 0.58 in Dinopis, the distance between receptors is ca. 4.0 μm compared to 20–22 μm for Dinopis, and image quality is matched to receptor spacing. The lens of Menneus is simple, while that of Dinopis comprises two components of different refractive indices (Blest and Land 1977). Receptive segments of the pm eyes of Dinopis are hexagonal in transverse section and those of adjacent cells are tightly contiguous, allowing the possibility of both optical and electrical coupling (Blest 1978). Receptive segments of Menneus are separated from each other by glial processes containing little pigment, and each segment possesses two rhabdomeres on opposite faces of the cell. Rhabdomere volumes undergo a daily cycle similar to that described for Dinopis, but of relatively minor extent. It is shown that the pm eye of Dinopis could have evolved from that of Menneus by a simple series of transformations, and that a gain of two logarithmic units of sensitivity can be attributed to changes in optical design alone.
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The authors thank Professor D.T. Anderson, F.R.S. for use of field facilities at the Crommelin Biological Field Station of Sydney University at Warrah, Pearl Beach, N.S.W. and Andrew and Sally Austin and Sally Stowe for help in the field. We are indebted to Rod Whitty and the Electron Microscopy Unit for advice and support throughout these studies. Chris Snoek prepared Fig. 1B-D
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Blest, A.D., Williams, D.S. & Kao, L. The posterior median eyes of the dinopid spider Menneus . Cell Tissue Res. 211, 391–403 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00234395
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00234395