Ocellar pigmentation and phototaxis in the nematode Mermis nigrescens: changes during development

Abstract

After 1 or 2 years of dormancy in the soil, Mermis nigrescens females emerge to lay eggs on vegetation where their grasshopper hosts are likely to feed. Females collected at this life stage exhibit a strong positive phototaxis and have a tubular region of pigmentation near the anterior tip consisting of concentrated oxyhaemoglobin. A previous investigation of the scanning motion of the ‘head’ and orientation of the ‘neck’ has implicated the shadowing of a photoreceptor inside the tube as the mechanism for identifying the direction of light during phototaxis. Here, we describe the development of the pigment in young adult females and investigate phototaxis in early developmental stages that lack the pigment. The orientation of the neck to a horizontal 420 nm stimulus (intensity 10(13)photons s(−)(1)cm(−)(2)) was measured for unpigmented fourth-stage larvae and immature adult females as well as mature females with pigmented ocelli. The orientation of the larvae and immature adults was weakly negative, whereas that of the mature adults was strongly positive. Head and neck movements were otherwise the same in the three stages. Thus, the pigmentation appears to be required for positive phototaxis, and the results provide further support for the shadowing role of ocellar haemoglobin.