Photoreceptor spectral tuning by colorful, multilayered facet lenses in long-legged fly eyes (Dolichopodidae)

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• 作者：D. G. Stavenga ; A. Meglič ; P. Pirih ; H. Koshitaka…
• 关键词：Iridescence ; Visual pigments ; Spectral filters ; Spectral sensitivity ; Photoreceptors
• 刊名：Journal of Comparative Physiology A
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：January 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：203
• 期：1
• 页码：23-33
• 全文大小：4608KB
• 刊物主题：Animal Physiology; Neurosciences; Zoology;
• 出版者：Springer Berlin Heidelberg
• ISSN：1432-1351
• 卷排序：203

文摘

The facet lenses of the compound eyes of long-legged flies (Dolichopodidae) feature a striking, interlaced coloration pattern, existing of alternating rows of green-yellow and orange-red reflecting facets, due to dielectric multilayers located distally in the facet lenses (Bernard and Miller. Invest Ophthalmol 7:416–434 (1968). We investigated this phenomenon in the dolichopodid Dolichopus nitidus by applying microspectrophotometry, electron microscopy and optical modeling. The measured narrow-band reflectance spectra, peaking at ~540 and ~590 nm with bandwidth ~105 nm, are well explained by a refractive index oscillating sinusoidally in six periods around a mean value of about 1.44 with amplitude 0.6. The facet lens reflectance spectra are associated with a spectrally restricted, reduced transmittance, which causes modified spectral sensitivities of the underlying photoreceptors. Based on the modeling and electroretinography of the dolichopodid Condylostylus japonicus we conjecture that the green and orange facets narrow the spectral bandwidths of blue and green central photoreceptors, respectively, thus possibly improving color and/or polarization vision.