Nocturnal Myrmecia ants have faster temporal resolution at low light levels but lower adaptability compared to diurnal relatives

Autor: Yuri Ogawa, Ajay Narendra, Jan M. Hemmi
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: iScience, Vol 25, Iss 4, Pp 104134- (2022)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2589-0042
DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104134
Popis: Summary: Nocturnal insects likely have evolved distinct physiological adaptations to enhance sensitivity for tasks, such as catching moving prey, where the signal-noise ratio of visual information is typically low. Using electroretinogram recordings, we measured the impulse response and the flicker fusion frequency (FFF) in six congeneric species of Myrmecia ants with different diurnal rhythms. The FFF, which measures the ability of an eye to respond to a flickering light, is significantly lower in nocturnal ants (∼125 Hz) compared to diurnal ants (∼189 Hz). However, the nocturnal ants have faster eyes at very low light intensities than the diurnal species. During the day, nocturnal ants had slower impulse responses than their diurnal counterparts. However, at night, both latency and duration significantly shortened in nocturnal species. The characteristics of the impulse responses varied substantially across all six species and did not correlate well with the measured flicker fusion frequency.
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