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How small can small be: The compound eye of the parasitoid wasp Trichogramma evanescens (Westwood, 1833) (Hymenoptera, Hexapoda), an insect of 0.3- to 0.4-mm total body size

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 October 2010

STEFAN FISCHER ,
CARSTEN H.G. MÜLLER  and
V. BENNO MEYER-ROCHOW
STEFAN FISCHER*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Engineering and Science, Jacobs University Bremen, Bremen, Germany
CARSTEN H.G. MÜLLER
Affiliation:
Department Cytology and Evolutionary Biology, Zoological Institute and Museum, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
V. BENNO MEYER-ROCHOW
Affiliation:
Faculty of Engineering and Science, Jacobs University Bremen, Bremen, Germany Department of Biology, Oulu University, Oulu, Finland
*
*Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Stefan Fischer, Faculty of Engineering and Science, Jacobs University Bremen, P.O. Box 750561, D-28725 Bremen, Germany. E-mail: s.fischer@jacobs-university.de
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Abstract

With a body length of only 0.3–0.4 mm, the parasitoid wasp Trichogramma evanescens (Westwood) is one of the smallest insects known. Yet, despite its diminutive size, it possesses compound eyes that are of oval shapes, measuring across their long axes in dorsoventral direction 63.39 and 71.11 μm in males and females, respectively. The corresponding facet diameters are 5.90 μm for males and 6.39 μm for females. Owing to the small radii of curvature of the eyes in males (34.59 μm) and females (42.82 μm), individual ommatidia are short with respective lengths of 24.29 and 34.97 μm. The eyes are of the apposition kind, and each ommatidium possesses four cone cells of the eucone type and a centrally fused rhabdom, which throughout its length is formed by no more than eight retinula cells. A ninth cell occupies the place of the eighth retinula cell in the distal third of the rhabdom. The cone is shielded by two primary and six secondary pigment cells, all with no apparent extensions to the basement membrane, unlike the case in larger hymenopterans. The regular and dense packing of the rhabdoms reflects an effective use of space. Calculations on the optics of the eyes of Trichogramma suggest that the eyes need not be diffraction limited, provided they use mostly shorter wavelengths, that is, UV light. Publications on the visual behavior of these wasps confirm Trichogramma’s sensitivity to UV radiation. On the basis of our findings, some general functional conclusions for very small compound eyes are formulated.

Keywords

VisionPhotoreceptorDiffractionRetinaMiniaturization
Type
Evolution and eye design
Information
Visual Neuroscience , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , July 2011 , pp. 295 - 308
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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