Pseudopupil
Close up of the head of a green shield mantis ( Rhombodera basalis ) showing the black pseudopupils in the compound eyes.
Mantis shrimp Pseudosquilla ciliata with three pseudopupils due to a split compound eye
A pseudopupil is an effect in compound eyes that makes ommatidia (individual eyes ) appear black and thus gives the impression of a pupil . The black spots arise where light hits parallel groups of ommatidia and is absorbed . The impression of a mobile eyeball is reinforced, as the pseudopupil moves over the surface of the eye by moving the entire head or changing the viewer's perspective.
The term “pseudopupil” goes back to Franz von Leydig (1864). The phenomenon was described in detail by Siegmund Exner in 1891 .
literature
- MF Land, G. Gibson, J. Horwood, J. Zeil: Fundamental differences in the optical structure of the eyes of nocturnal and diurnal mosquitoes. In: Journal of Comparative Physiology A, Volume 185, No. 1, 1999, pp. 91-103. DOI: 10.1007 / s003590050369 ( PDF )
- Jochen Zeil, Maha M. Al-Mutairi: The variation of resolution and of ommatidial dimensions in the compound eyes of the fiddler crab Uca lactea annulipes (Ocypodidae, Brachyura, Decapoda). In: Journal of Experimental Biology, Volume 199, No. 7, 1996, pp. 1569-1577. ( PDF )
Web links
Commons : Pseudopupil - collection of images, videos and audio files
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Fritz Gessner: Handbuch der Biologie, Volume 5: Das Tier . Academic Publishing Society Athenaion, 1942.
- ↑ Siegmund Exner: The physiology of the faceted eyes of crabs and insects . Franz Deuticke, 1891, pp. 162–178.