Affiliation:
1. Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Večna pot 111, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
2. Eye Hospital, University Medical Centre, Grablovičeva 46, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Abstract
The eyes of nymphalid butterflies, investigated with incident illumination, show colourful facet reflection patterns—the eye shine—which is uniform or heterogeneous, dependent on the species. Facet colours suggest that the ommatidia contain different sets of photoreceptors and screening pigments, but how the colours and the cell characteristics are associated has not been clearly established. Here, we analyse the retinae of two nymphalids,
Apatura ilia
, which has a uniform eyeshine, and
Charaxes jasius,
a species with a heterogeneous eye shine, using single-cell recordings, spectroscopy and optical pupillometry.
Apatura
has UV-, blue- and green-sensitive photoreceptors, allocated into three ommatidial types. The UV- and blue-sensitive cells are long visual fibres (LVFs), receiving opponent input from the green-sensitive short visual fibres (SVFs).
Charaxes
has an expanded set of photoreceptors, allocated into three additional, red-reflecting ommatidial types. All red ommatidia contain green-sensitive LVFs, receiving opponent input from red receptors. In both species, the SVFs do not receive any opponent input. The simple retina of
Apatura
with three ommatidial types and two colour-opponent channels can support trichromatic vision.
Charaxes
has six ommatidial types and three colour-opponent channels. Its expanded receptor set can support tetrachromatic vision.
This article is part of the theme issue ‘Understanding colour vision: molecular, physiological, neuronal and behavioural studies in arthropods’.
Funder
Ministrstvo za Izobraževanje, Znanost in Šport
Air Force Office of Scientific Research
Javna Agencija za Raziskovalno Dejavnost RS
Subject
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Cited by
2 articles.
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1. Simple and complex, sexually dimorphic retinal mosaic of fritillary butterflies;Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences;2022-09-05
2. High diversity of arthropod colour vision: from genes to ecology;Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences;2022-09-05