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Anatomical and physiological evidence for polarisation vision in the nocturnal bee Megalopta genalis

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Abstract

The presence of a specialised dorsal rim area with an ability to detect the e-vector orientation of polarised light is shown for the first time in a nocturnal hymenopteran. The dorsal rim area of the halictid bee Megalopta genalis features a number of characteristic anatomical specialisations including an increased rhabdom diameter and a lack of primary screening pigments. Optically, these specialisations result in wide spatial receptive fields (Δρ = 14°), a common adaptation found in the dorsal rim areas of insects used to filter out interfering effects (i.e. clouds) from the sky. In this specialised eye region all nine photoreceptors contribute their microvilli to the entire length of the ommatidia. These orthogonally directed microvilli are anatomically arranged in an almost linear, anterior–posterior orientation. Intracellular recordings within the dorsal rim area show very high polarisation sensitivity and a sensitivity peak within the ultraviolet part of the spectrum.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Thomas Labhart for valuable comments on the manuscript, Jamie Theobald for help with fieldwork and the staff of the Smithonian Tropical Research Institute for their help and ANAM of the Republic of Panama for permission to collect and export bees for this study. The histological work was partly done at the Centre for Visual Sciences, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University. B.G. is thankful for travel awards from the Royal Physiographic Society, the Per Westlings Fond, the Foundation of Dagny and Eilert Ekvall and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. E.J.W. is grateful for the support of a Smithsonian Short-Term Research Fellowship, the Swedish Research Council, the Crafoord Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the Royal Physiographic Society of Lund for their ongoing support. W.T.W. is grateful for general research funds from STRI and T.W.C for support from the NSF and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cell and Organism Biology, Lund University, Helgonavägen 3, 22362, Lund, Sweden

    Birgit Greiner & Eric J. Warrant

  2. Life Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada, B3H4J1

    Birgit Greiner

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, UMBC, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD, 21250, USA

    Thomas W. Cronin

  4. University of Human Sciences of the Principality of Liechtenstein, Dorfstrasse 24, P.O.Box 535, 9495, Triesen, Principality of Liechtenstein

    Willi A. Ribi

  5. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843-03092, Balboa, Republic of Panama

    William T. Wcislo

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  1. Birgit Greiner
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Correspondence to Birgit Greiner.

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Greiner, B., Cronin, T.W., Ribi, W.A. et al. Anatomical and physiological evidence for polarisation vision in the nocturnal bee Megalopta genalis . J Comp Physiol A 193, 591–600 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-007-0214-1

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