Sex and Caste Specific Eye Structures in Stingless Bees and Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Trigonidae, Apidae)

Ribi, Willi A.; Engels, Elisabeth; Engels, Wolf

doi:10.1127/entom.gen/14/1989/233

Cited by 43 publications

(51 citation statements)

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“…This deduction fits nicely to recent behavioural data (Edrich, 1989) which confirm an approximately twice as high spatial and temporal resolution of drones as those of worker bees (an extraordinary temporal resolution has been already suggested for drone photoreceptors by Coles and Schneider-Picard 1989). As discussed by Ribi et al, (1989). the mating strategy in certain stingless bees is in other species of social or solitary bees and different from the honey bee, and optical wasps.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

“…Land, 1989). On the other hand, a definition of the equator as a line simply subdividing the drone eye into two equal parts which has been used in earlier papers (Praagh et al, 1980;Ribi, 1987;Ribi et al, 1989) does not meet these requirements.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…this, their drones do not show a conspicuous, Thanks are due to R. Menzel, W. Backhaus, male-specific external appearance of their W. Kirchner and J. Tautz for commenting on eyes (Ribi et al, 1989), and presumably also the paper; C. Brandes for supplying drones not an internal one. It seems tempting, therein a critical situation; B. Fliigel for expert fore, to further compare the occurrence of technical assistance.…”

Section: Acknowledgementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Functional morphology of the divided compound eye of the honeybee drone (Apis mellifera)

1991

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ABSTRACT.Using different approaches, the functional morphology of the compound eye of the honeybee drone was examined. The drone exhibits an extended acute zone in the dorsal part of its eye. The following specializations were found here: enlarged facet diameters; smaller interommatidial angles; red-leaky screening pigment; enlarged rhabdom diameters; photopigment composition different from the drone's ventral eye region and the worker bee's eye. Thus, similar to other male insects, the drone compound eye is divided into a male-specific dorsal part and a ventral part resembling the worker bee's eye. The functional significance of the sex-specific acute zone is discussed with respect to mating behaviour.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Acknowledgementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Functional morphology of the divided compound eye of the honeybee drone (Apis mellifera)

1991

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“…The number of ommatidia was determined using corneal nail polish replicas, following the methods adopted by Praagh (Praagh et al, 1980). Ommatidial diameters were determined in the fronto-ventral region of the eye where they were found to be the largest in other bees (Ribi et al, 1989;Greiner et al, 2004a;Kelber et al, 2006). Ocellar and ommatidial diameters were measured using light microscopy and scanning electron microscope (SEM) photographs.…”

Section: Eye and Body Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resolution and sensitivity of the eyes of the Asian honeybees Apis florea, Apis cerana and Apis dorsata

Somanathan

Warrant

Borges

et al. 2009

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYBees of the genus Apis are important foragers of nectar and pollen resources. Although the European honeybee, Apis mellifera, has been well studied with respect to its sensory abilities, learning behaviour and role as pollinators, much less is known about the other Apis species. We studied the anatomical spatial resolution and absolute sensitivity of the eyes of three sympatric species of Asian honeybees, Apis cerana, Apis florea and Apis dorsata and compared them with the eyes of A. mellifera. Of these four species, the giant honeybee A. dorsata (which forages during moonlit nights) has the lowest spatial resolution and the most sensitive eyes, followed by A. mellifera, A. cerana and the dwarf honeybee, A. florea (which has the smallest acceptance angles and the least sensitive eyes). Moreover, unlike the strictly diurnal A. cerana and A. florea, A. dorsata possess large ocelli, a feature that it shares with all dim-light bees. However, the eyes of the facultatively nocturnal A. dorsata are much less sensitive than those of known obligately nocturnal bees such as Megalopta genalis in Panama and Xylocopa tranquebarica in India. The differences in sensitivity between the eyes of A. dorsata and other strictly diurnal Apis species cannot alone explain why the former is able to fly, orient and forage at half-moon light levels. We assume that additional neuronal adaptations, as has been proposed for A. mellifera, M. genalis and X. tranquebarica, might exist in A. dorsata.

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“…Firstly, they can only be performed on readily-available, extant insects because they rely on preserving fresh tissue (7) and, secondly, because they provide only a 2D representation of the eye and thus limit our ability to understand how it viewed its 3D environment (8). To perform our investigation, it was therefore necessary to develop a method that would enable us to quantify and recreate the visual world of naturally preserved insects.…”

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confidence: 99%

Imaging the evolution of visual specializations in fungus gnats

Taylor

Hall

Gren

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Abstract:Many insects use vision to inform their behavior, but visual information differs between habitats and the sensory demands vary with each species' ecology. The small size of insects' eyes constrains their optical performance, and so it is unsurprising that they have evolved specializations for optimizing the information they obtain from their habitat. Unraveling how behavioral, environmental, and phylogenetic factors influence the evolution of such specializations is difficult, however, because existing techniques to analyze insect eyes require specimens to be preserved beforehand. To facilitate broad comparative studies on insect eyes and the evolution of complex visual behavior, we developed a novel analysis technique that uses x-ray micro-computed tomography to quantify and recreate the visual world of insects. We use our methodology to investigate the eyes of fungus gnats (Orfeliini), a tribe of diminutive Dipterans, to identify the visual specializations they evolved for surviving in different forest habitats and to explore how this changed over 30 million years of evolutionary history. The specimens we studied were preserved in different ways (in ethanol, air dried, and as an endocast in amber), demonstrating that our method provides a new opportunity to quantitatively study and compare the vision of a wide range insects held in museum collections. Our analysis indicates that different visual specializations have evolved between fungus gnat species living in different forest types and that the eyes of gnats from a similar geographic location have evolved to match the changing environmental conditions. Despite the small size of fungus gnats, evolution has evidentially been able to exploit sensory specializations to meet the differing sensory demands of species from a variety of forest habitats.Significance statement: Do insects have visual specializations that evolve with changes in their environment? To answer this question, a novel analysis technique is described that uses 3D imaging and simulations to compare the vision of ancient amber-embedded insects to those of their extant relatives. This study investigated the vision of fungus gnats to understand how tiny insects use vision to negotiate forests, some of the world's most visually complex environments. Despite being amongst the smallest of any flying insect, the gnats' miniature eyes have evolved visual specializations specifically adapted for different forest types, allowing different species to meet their visual demands of their specific habitats.Introduction: Vision provides essential information to meet the sensory demands of flying insects and is utilized to orchestrate both movement through, and interactions with, their environment (1). To fly safely and efficiently and to avoid collisions with obstacles, an insect must control its speed and orientation. To forage successfully, it must locate and recognize food objects from the wing, before safely approaching and landing upon them. The visual requirements of both sets of tasks depend up...

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Sex and Caste Specific Eye Structures in Stingless Bees and Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Trigonidae, Apidae)

Cited by 43 publications

References 0 publications

Functional morphology of the divided compound eye of the honeybee drone (Apis mellifera)

Functional morphology of the divided compound eye of the honeybee drone (Apis mellifera)

Resolution and sensitivity of the eyes of the Asian honeybees Apis florea, Apis cerana and Apis dorsata

Imaging the evolution of visual specializations in fungus gnats

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