Anton-Erxleben F, Langer H
Institut für Tierphysiologie, Fakultät für Biologie, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Federal Republic of Germany.
Cell Tissue Res. 1988 May;252(2):385-96. doi: 10.1007/BF00214381.
The fine structure of the superposition eye of the Saturniid moth Antheraea polyphemus Cramer was investigated by electron microscopy. Each of the approximately 10,000 ommatidia consists of the same structural components, but regarding the arrangement of the ommatidia and the rhabdom structure therein, two regions of the eye have to be distinguished. In a small dorsal rim area, the ommatidia are characterized by rectangularly shaped rhabdoms containing parallel microvilli arranged in groups that are oriented perpendicular to each other. In all other ommatidia, the proximal parts of the rhabdoms show radially arranged microvilli, whereas the distal parts may reveal different patterns, frequently with microvilli in two directions or sometimes even in one direction. Moreover, the microvilli of all distal cells are arranged in parallel to meridians of the eyes. By virtue of these structural features the eyes should enable this moth not only discrimination of the plane of polarized light but also skylight-orientation via the polarization pattern, depending on moon position. The receptor cells exhibit only small alterations during daylight within the natural diurnal cycle. However, under illumination with different monochromatic lights of physiological intensity, receptor cells can be unbalanced: Changes in ultrastructure of the rhabdomeres and the cytoplasm of such cells are evident. The effects are different in the daytime and at night. These findings are discussed in relation to the breakdown and regeneration of microvilli and the influence of the diurnal cycle. They are compared with results on photoreceptor membrane turnover in eyes of other arthropod species.
通过电子显微镜对天蚕蛾多音大蚕蛾（Antheraea polyphemus Cramer）重叠眼的精细结构进行了研究。大约10000个小眼各自都由相同的结构成分组成，但就小眼的排列以及其中视杆的结构而言，眼睛的两个区域必须加以区分。在一个小的背缘区域，小眼的特征是具有矩形视杆，其中包含成组排列的平行微绒毛，这些微绒毛彼此垂直定向。在所有其他小眼中，视杆的近端部分显示出径向排列的微绒毛，而远端部分可能呈现不同的模式，通常微绒毛有两个方向，有时甚至只有一个方向。此外，所有远端细胞的微绒毛都与眼睛的子午线平行排列。凭借这些结构特征，这种蛾的眼睛不仅应能辨别偏振光的平面，还应能通过偏振模式根据月亮位置进行天空定向。在自然昼夜周期的白天，受体细胞仅表现出微小变化。然而，在用不同生理强度的单色光照射时，受体细胞可能会失衡：此类细胞的视小杆和细胞质的超微结构变化明显。白天和晚上的影响不同。结合微绒毛的分解和再生以及昼夜周期的影响对这些发现进行了讨论。并将它们与其他节肢动物眼睛中光感受器膜更新的结果进行了比较。
