Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 5 November 1999:
Vol. 286. no. 5442, pp. 1178 - 1180
DOI: 10.1126/science.286.5442.1178
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Chunk Versus Point Sampling: Visual Imaging in a Small Insect

Elke Buschbeck, * Birgit Ehmer, *dagger Ron Hoy

The eyes of strepsipteran insects are very unusual among living insects. In their anatomical organization they may form a modern counterpart to the structural plan proposed for the eyes of some trilobites. Externally they differ from the usual "insect plan" by presenting far fewer but much larger lenses. Beneath each lens is its own independent retina. Anatomical and optical measurements indicate that each of these units is image-forming, so that the visual field is subdivided into and represented by "chunks," unlike the conventional insect compound eye that decomposes the visual image in a pointwise manner. This results in profound changes in the neural centers for vision and implies major evolutionary changes.

Neurobiology and Behavior, Mudd Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
*   These authors contributed equally to this report.

dagger    To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: be18{at}cornell.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Behavioral evidence for within-eyelet resolution in twisted-winged insects (Strepsiptera).
S. Maksimovic, J. E. Layne, and E. K. Buschbeck (2007)
J. Exp. Biol. 210, 2819-2828
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The optomotor response and spatial resolution of the visual system in male Xenos vesparum (Strepsiptera).
W Pix, J. Zanker, and J Zeil (2000)
J. Exp. Biol. 203, 3397-3409
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)