The eye of the soldier beetle Chauliognathus pulchellus (Cantharidae)

The soldier beetle eye is unusual in having large optically isotropic corneal cones which project inwards from a thick isotropic cornea. Refraction is mainly at the corneal surface. Calculation shows that the first focal plane is near the tip of the cone, from which the optical pathway continues as a crystalline tract. At the distal end of the crystalline tract, 3 micrometer in diameter, the four cone cells enclose the proximal tip of the corneal cone; at the proximal end they enclose the distal tip of a long fused rhabdom rod. The eye is remarkable in that there are two classes of retinula cells; four cells contribute to the long thin axial rhabdom, 2 micrometer in diameter and 120 micrometer long, and the other four cells form two rounded rhabdoms, 10 x 4 micrometer in cross-section and 20 micrometer deep, which lie to one side of the optical axis. The physiological properties of individual retinula cells were measured by intracellular recording. The retinula cells are of three spectral types with peaks near 360, 450 and 520--530 nm. Except by the criterion of spectral sensitivity, the retinula cells sampled could not be sorted into more than one class. The measured value of the acceptance angle, near 3 degrees in the dark-adapted state, is consistent with the hypothesis that all sampled cells were of the anatomical type that participate in the central rhabdom rod. A calculation of the theoretical field size of individual retinula cells from measurments of refractive index and lens dimensions predicts that cells which participate in the central rhabdom will have acceptance angles near 3 degrees. The conclusion, therefore, is that only one anatomical type of cell has so far been sampled.