Charting the Visual Space of Insect Eyes - Delineating the Guidance, Navigation and Control of Insect Flight by Their Optical Sensor

摘要

Insect visual systems are extremely compact and presumably optimized for optimal processing of optical information. Unravelling the pathways of spatial, spectral and polarization vision combined in insect eyes and brains will provide essential insight into optimization principles of how animals derive crucial information for survival. In insect compound eyes, the distribution of optical axes determines the spatial sampling of the optical information in the surrounding environment. To map the visual fields of the compound eyes, a motorized goniometric apparatus has been developed allowing the measurement of the visual axes of the sampling units, the ommatidia. With a semiautomated measurement procedure, which uses the prominent pseudopupil phenomenon, spatial maps can be determined. The acquired data forms the basis for analyses of optic flow and optimization of spatial vision depending on speed of flight. The simultaneously acquired data, allowing assessment of ocular heterogeneity, i.e. the dependence of spectral properties on spatial directions, reveals how spatial vision may compete with spectral and polarization vision.