2
1ULTRASTRUCTURE OF THE COMPOUND EYE OF THE MANTODEA

Takayuki NAGASHlMA，Kiyoko ABE andNobuo GOKAN

Labora七ory of Entomology，Tokyo University of Agriculture，
Sakuragaoka，Setagaya，Tokyo，156 JapanThe compound eyes of the mantodean insects aど e well‑deve‑
loped and chaど actrerized as augentier animal. The fine stど uctureof compound eye of a man七οdean，Tenodera aridifolia was observed
by tど ansmission electron micど oscopy.
The eye is of theapposition type and contains cones of the"eucone organiza七ion. Diop七ric apparatus i5 compara七ively large，composed of cornea and crystalline cones. The cone cell exten
由sion splits into four and enteど S 七heinterce工工 ularspace of theretinula cells and they reach the level below the basement mem‑brane. Jusi
ニ abovethe basemen
七 membrane，the cone extensions
suddenly thicken and converge at the centre of an ommat土dium to22
become a bundle of 4 axons.

However，under 七he basement mem

brane，the cone extensions disperse and each encloses an axon.
工n eachommatidium，onefindsa totalof 8 retinula ce工
工 sas.
in many insec七stwo re七inula ceエ s (R1 and R8 in Fig.

Howeveど1) possess no r・habdomere. The other 6 cells (R2 七o R7 in Fig. 1)

contribute 七o the formation of 七he rhabdom. The nuclei of R1 andR8 are present moどe distally and proximally to other 6 retinulacor

守 悶 m・.<A霊ppc

BFc

岳。

Hrh‑‑‑̲̲̲Fig. 1. An omma七idium of 主主主2主主主主 aridifoli~ in longitudina工S告 ction and transver草 e section at represent畠 tive leve工s (A‑沼}(the sca工e is not same). Numbers on the ri守h七 side of thelongitu~ina1
section indicate the figure numbers of region
i1lustr畠 ted by e1母 ctron microgr丑 phs. 品 x，axon bm，basem告 nt
membrane cc，crysta1line cone cor，corn
告品
ppc，primary pigmentcel1 rc，retinula ce11 rh，rhabdom spc，secondary pigment
ce11.

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cells.

Pigment gran1l1es were present in the cytoplasm of all

retin1l1a cells. Those gran1l1es were especially abllndan七 inthe
distal region of the retina.
Numerolls organelles sllch as mitochondoria，Golgi bodies，m1l1tivesic1l1ar bodies，smooth and rOllgh ER are seen in cytoplasmof the re七inula cells. The retin1l1a cells have numerOllS vacuoles
in the endoplasmic retic1l1um called 'palisade' as in other ortho
叫pteroid insects. 工七 is interesting that the pigment grains inどetin1l1a cells show variolls degrees in spite of ad1l1t.
The rhabdom is triang1l1ar，and of "fused type". As mentioned

above，each ommatidillm is composed of 8 re七in1l1a cells，of which
6，or 3 pairs，con七ribute 七o a rhabdom with i七s cross‑section
divided in七o 七hree regions，wi七h microvilli poin七ing at angles ofどoximatelly 120 to each other.
app，there a e 2 prima y pigmen七 cells and a

工n pigmen七 cells

どどnllmber of secondary pigment cells per omma七idillm.

The secondary

pigmen七 cells contain few pigmen七 grains and a nllmber of micro
四tl
lbl
l工es 0ど deredpaどallel to each other and 七o the long axis ofomma七idia.
As a conclllsion，thefine strllctures of the omma七idillm ofTenoder5! (Mantodea) ど esemble those of 七he 0七her or七hop七eroid
insec七s excep七 that of 七he Dermap七era (Mc.Lean and Hor玄 idge，1977)•

References
Blltler，R. (1973) J. Comp. Physiol.
， 83:239 262.
四Gokan，N. and T. Nagashima (1979) Kontyll， 47:570‑585.

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Horridge，G.A. and P. Duelli (1979) J. Exp. Biol.，80:165‑190.
McLean，M. and G.A. Horridge (1977) Tiss. Cell，9:653‑666.

Proc.Arthropod.Embryo1.Soc.Jpn，・1986.