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Morphological correlations to an electrical resistance barrier in the eye of the locust Schistocerca gregaria

University of British Columbia

The basic morphology and ultrastructure of the compound eye of the locust Schistocerca gregaria, has been investigated. Morphologically the locust eye was found to be similar to that observed by Horridge (1966) and to those of other insects such as the honey-bee drone, Apis mellifera (Perrelet, 1970). Ultrastructurally, this invertebrate sense organ suggests that there is little extracellular space between the cells of an ommatidium within the retina, as shown by the presence of differentiated plasma membranes in the form of narrow gap junctions. This type of membrane differentiation may be related to the demonstrated existence of a retinal resistance barrier (Shaw, 1975). This suggests that the physiologically demonstrated barrier may require only minor structural alterations within the retina. It is suggested that the barrier may be the same in other invertebrates.

Text

2010-02-09

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/19865

Zoology

University of British Columbia

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