Relationships between pupil working range and habitat luminance in flies and butterflies

Jonson, A. C. Järemo; Land, Michael F.; Osorio, Daniel; Nilsson, Dan-Eric

doi:10.1007/s003590050152

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…This is an expected result because parrots have eyes that are probably less sensitive than owl eyes, such that parrots have to maximize photon flux at higher light levels than owls. Similar correlations have been observed among butterflies (Jonson et al, 1998) but to our knowledge not previously observed among vertebrates.…”

Section: Function Of the Avian Pupilsupporting

confidence: 91%

Multifocal optical systems and pupil dynamics in birds

Lind

Kelber

Kröger

2008

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYIn animal eyes of the camera type longitudinal chromatic aberration causes defocus that is particularly severe in species with short depth of focus. In a variety of vertebrates, multifocal optical systems compensate for longitudinal chromatic aberration by concentric zones of different refractive powers. Since a constricting circular pupil blocks peripheral zones, eyes with multifocal optical systems often have slit pupils that allow light to pass through all zones, irrespective of the state of pupil constriction. Birds have circular pupils and were therefore assumed to have monofocal optical systems. We examined the eyes of 45 species (12 orders) of bird using videorefractometry, and the results are surprising: 29 species (10 orders) have multifocal systems, and only five species (five orders) have monofocal systems. The results from 11 species (four orders) are inconclusive. We propose that pupils ʻswitchingʼ between being fully opened (multifocal principle) to maximally closed (pinhole principle) can make multifocal optical systems useful for animals with circular pupils. Previous results indicate that mice have both multifocal optical systems and switching pupils. Our results suggest that parrots may use a similar mechanism. By contrast, owl pupils responded weakly to changes in illumination and stayed remarkably wide even in full daylight. Moreover, the parrots opened their pupils at higher light levels than owls, which correlates with the differences in sensitivity between diurnal and nocturnal eyes.

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Section: Function Of the Avian Pupilsupporting

confidence: 91%

Multifocal optical systems and pupil dynamics in birds

Lind

Kelber

Kröger

2008

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…9A), corroborating previous studies (Järemo Jonson et al, 1998;Stavenga, 1979). Interestingly, the pupil range of the red and green reflecting ommatidia is rather similar.…”

Section: Simultaneous Analysis Of Individual Ommatidiasupporting

confidence: 91%

“…A green-red ommatidial eye shine is observed here, similar to the eye shine in the ventral half of the eye of the satyrine butterfly Bicyclus anynana (Stavenga, 2002b). In contrast to previous reflectometric recordings in butterfly eyes at the level of the deep pseudopupil (Järemo Jonson et al, 1998), we here analyzed images of the corneal Table 1). reflection after different illumination intensities.…”

Section: Simultaneous Analysis Of Individual Ommatidiamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The eye shine phenomenon is highly useful for non-invasive, optical investigations of retinal processes, e.g. the photochemistry of visual pigments (Bernard, 1979;Bernard and Remington, 1991;Stavenga, 1975;Stavenga, 1979) and the light-dependence and dynamics of the pupil mechanism (Järemo Jonson et al, 1998;Stavenga et al, 1977). The eye shine is especially bright when observed with the microscope focused at the level of the center of curvature of the eye, because of the approximately spherical shape of compound eyes and the appearance there of the so-called deep pseudopupil (Franceschini and Kirschfeld, 1971).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Analyzing the reflections from single ommatidia in the butterfly compound eye with Voronoi diagrams

Vanhoutte

Michielsen

Stavenga

2003

Journal of Neuroscience Methods

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This paper presents a robust method for the automated segmentation and quantitative measurement of reflections from single ommatidia in the butterfly compound eye. Digital pictures of the butterfly eye shine recorded with a digital camera are processed to yield binary images from which single facet centers can be extracted using a morphological image analysis procedure. The location of the facet centers is corrected by fitting in-line facet centers to a second-order polynomial. Based on the new centers a Voronoi diagram is constructed. In the case of the eye shine images, the Voronoi diagram defines a hexagonal lattice that overlaps with the original facet borders, allowing instantaneous quantification of the reflections from single ommatidia. We provide two typical examples to demonstrate that the developed technique may be a powerful tool to characterize in vivo the heterogeneity of butterfly eyes and to study the dynamic control of the light flux by the pupil mechanism.

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“…In the strictly day-active ants, the only light adaptation mechanism that has been observed is the radial migration of retinular cell screening pigment granules wherein the pigments tightly ensheath the rhabdom in the lightadapted state and move away from the rhabdom in the dark-adapted state (Brunnert and Wehner, 1973;Menzel and Knaut, 1973;Menzi, 1987). This migration of the retinular cell pigment granules towards and away from the rhabdom alters the refractive index of the surrounding medium, resulting in a change of the modedependent properties (Jonson and Nilsson, 1994;Jonson et al, 1998;Kirschfeld and Franceschini, 1969;Snyder and Horridge, 1972;Stavenga, 2004a,b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Light and dark adaptation mechanisms in the compound eyes of Myrmecia ants that occupy discrete temporal niches

Narendra

Greiner

Ribi

et al. 2016

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Ants of the Australian genus Myrmecia partition their foraging niche temporally, allowing them to be sympatric with overlapping foraging requirements. We used histological techniques to study the light and dark adaptation mechanisms in the compound eyes of diurnal (Myrmecia croslandi), crepuscular (M. tarsata, M. nigriceps) and nocturnal ants (M. pyriformis). We found that, except in the day-active species, all ants have a variable primary pigment cell pupil that constricts the crystalline cone in bright light to control for light flux. We show for the nocturnal M. pyriformis that the constriction of the crystalline cone by the primary pigment cells is light dependent whereas the opening of the aperture is regulated by an endogenous rhythm. In addition, in the light-adapted eyes of all species, the retinular cell pigment granules radially migrate towards the rhabdom, a process that in both the day-active M. croslandi and the night-active M. pyriformis is driven by ambient light intensity. Visual system properties thus do not restrict crepuscular and night-active ants to their temporal foraging niche, while day-active ants require high light intensities to operate. We discuss the ecological significance of these adaptation mechanisms and their role in temporal niche partitioning.

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Relationships between pupil working range and habitat luminance in flies and butterflies

Cited by 11 publications

References 27 publications

Multifocal optical systems and pupil dynamics in birds

Multifocal optical systems and pupil dynamics in birds

Analyzing the reflections from single ommatidia in the butterfly compound eye with Voronoi diagrams

Light and dark adaptation mechanisms in the compound eyes of Myrmecia ants that occupy discrete temporal niches

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