Some Aspects of the Structural Organization of the Arthropod Eye

Abstract

In contrast to the vertebrates which show a rather uniform architecture of the visual system and especially of the retina, the arthropods have two main types of eyes: small unicorneal eyes with a cup-shaped retina and big compound eyes formed by numerous polyhedrical units or ommatidia. Each ommatidium consists of a dioptric system and a variable number of photoreceptor cells (usually 6, 7, or 8).