Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Eye structure in Bullants correlates with the timing of foraging bouts

Ever wondered about what goes on in the enormous eyes of Bullants? Yup we did too, and we ended up finding that the diameter of the photoreceptor, the optical sensitivity, the number of facets and the facet sizes, all increase gradually from diurnal to diurnal/crepuscular, crepuscular/nocturnal and nocturnal species. Such adaptations in eye structure within a single genus, the primitive ant genus Myrmecia especially, is truly remarkable.

Read more here:
Greiner B, Narendra A, Reid SF, Dacke M, Ribi WA, Zeil J. 2007. Eye structure correlates with distinct foraging bout timing in primitive ants. Current Biology 17 (20): R879-R880.

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