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Die Sehfelder der zentralen Ommatidien in den Appositionsaugen von Apis mellifica und Cataglyphis bicolor (Apidae, Formicidae; Hymenoptera)

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Abstract

Experimental equipment has been developed to make possible continuous recordings of intensity distribution curves as a function of angle of incidence of light in single ommatidia of arthropod compound eyes. — As preliminary experiment, the visual fields of ommatidia in Limulus, Apis and Cataglyphis have been ascertained without a light measuring instrument. A point source was moved through the visual field and the angular position of the light source on both sides of the visual field at which the rhabdome in the cut-off eye viewed from proximal turned dark was determined. In the dorsal part of the Limulus eye, the cranio-caudal width of the visual field is 42.6±0.3°. The width of the visual field of central ommatidia in Apis is 6.68±0.14° in the dorsoventral plane and 7.42±0.24° in the cranio-caudal direction, in Cataglyphis 15.5±0.5° and 12.5±0.4° respectively.— Similar Gaussian curves for light and dark adapted ommatidia resulted from the continuous recordings of intensity distribution curves in Apis. The rotatory symmetric curve of the worker bee has a half-width of Δρ=2.57°. The standardized curve of amplitude one may be approximated by the function y=exp (-0.41 [degree−2]ϕ 2). In Cataglyphis, the half-width of the intensity distribution curve is Δρ=8.8° in the dorso-ventral plane and Δρ=6.8° in the cranio-caudal plane. Near the axis, the functions y=exp(-0.04 [degree−2]ϕ2) and y=exp(-0.06 [degree−2]ϕ 2) approximate the standardized curves. — Knowledge of intensity distributions in connection with interommatidial angles Δρ allows estimation of contrast transfer and resolving power of the array of the dioptric systems. Correlations with behavioural findings are attempted.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zoologisches Institut der Universität Zürich, Schweiz

    Werner P. Eheim & Rüdiger Wehner

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  1. Werner P. Eheim
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  2. Rüdiger Wehner
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Mit Unterstützung durch den Schweizerischen National-fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Kredit Nr. 3.315.70, die Eidgenössische Konstruktionswerkstätte (Thun) sowie die Firmen Philips AG (Zürich) und Wild AG (Heerbrugg).

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Eheim, W.P., Wehner, R. Die Sehfelder der zentralen Ommatidien in den Appositionsaugen von Apis mellifica und Cataglyphis bicolor (Apidae, Formicidae; Hymenoptera). Kybernetik 10, 168–179 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00290516

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