Summary
Wolf spiders have four pairs of eyes distributed in three rows. The first row which lie in the frontal region of the caparace, just above the chelicera, contains four eyes: a medial pair known as the anterior medial eyes (AM eyes or principal eyes) and two smaller eyes known as the anterior lateral eyes (AL eyes). The second row which is located also in the frontal region of the prosoma consists of two big eyes. These are the posterior median eyes (PM eyes). The third row contains the posterior lateral eyes (PL eyes) which lie in the flanks of the prosomal caparace. The AL, PM and PL eyes are the so-called secondary eyes.
The electron microscope shows that the AM eye photoreceptor cells have the rhabdomere in their distal segment, just behind the vitreous body. The rhabdomere consists of closely packed microvilli about 0.5 μ long exhibiting a uniform diameter of 500 Å. Each rhabdom consists of two rhabdomeres. The distal segment of the photoreceptor has a prismatic shape with four or five faces depending of their location within the retina.
The distribution of the rhabdoms follows two different patterns or organization. In the peripheral portion of the retina they lie oriented either parallel or perpendicular to the retinal radii. In this zone most cells have four sides while in the central region five sided cells are predominant. These cells bear microvilli in three of their five faces and the rhabdoms show no preferential mode of orientation. Each retina contains approximately 450 photoreceptors. In the secondary eyes the rhabdoms lie far from the vitreous body behind the level of the cell nuclei. A light reflecting layer or tapetum is present in the three pairs of secondary eyes. The microvilli forming the rhabdomeres of the AL eyes are 0.5 μ long and 500 Å wide, while the microvilli of the rhabdomeres in the PM and PL eyes are longer and thicker (1.5 μ long and 550–660 Å wide). In these eyes the rhabdomeres are surrounded by abundant extracellular material. Like in the principal eyes each rhabdom consists of two rhabdomeres.
In the AL eyes the photoreceptor cells send out collateral branches which end, without any specialization, in contact with other photoreceptors. Clear fibers running parallely to the tapetum have been found in the secondary eyes. These fibers show specialized regions corresponding to the zones of contact with the photoreceptor cells. These areas are characterized by an increased density of the membranes and groups of vesicles (the vesicles lie within the fibers).
The optic nerves consist of photoreceptor axons, glial cells and a fibrous perineural sheath. The AM and AL eyes are connected to the CNS by a single compact optic nerve while in the PM and PL eyes the optic nerve consists of several individual bundles. The total number of optic fibers entering into the brain is about 12.000.
A layer of glial cytoplasm covers each photoreceptor axon and the mesaxons appear as double lines which bifurcate frequently.
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Research sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Office of Aerospace Research, United States Air Force, under AFOSR Grant Nr. 618-64.
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Melamed, J., Trujillo-Cenóz, O. The fine structure of the visual system of Lycosa (Araneae: Lycosidae). Zeitschrift für Zellforschung 74, 12–31 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00342937
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00342937