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Functional binocular vision is not dependent on visual experience in the praying mantis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 June 2009

Ute Mathis
Affiliation:
Institut für Biologie I, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Albertstr. 21A, 7800 Freiburg, Germany
Sabine Eschbach
Affiliation:
Institut für Biologie I, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Albertstr. 21A, 7800 Freiburg, Germany
Samuel Rossel
Affiliation:
Institut für Biologie I, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Albertstr. 21A, 7800 Freiburg, Germany

Abstract

In vertebrates, it has been shown that binocular visual experience is necessary to develop normal spatial vision. We have investigated whether this is also true for an invertebrate, the praying mantis. The praying mantis is a predatory insect in which prey localization involves the use of binocular disparities. We raised mantids which had one eye occluded throughout development and tested monocular visual fixation and binocular distance estimation in the adult animals. The results revealed that both fixation and prey catching behavior were normally functional in the monocularly reared animals. Thus we conclude that, in mantids, binocular vision is based on a fixed mode of development.

Type
Short Communications
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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