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Journal of Experimental Biology 148,221-233 (1990)
Published by Company of Biologists 1990

Observations on the Compound Eyes of the Deep-Sea Ostracod Macrocypridina Castanea

M. F. LAND ¹ and D. -E. NILSSON ¹

¹ School of Biological Sciences, University of Sussex Brighton BN1 9QG, UK Department of Zoology, University of Lund, S-22362 Lund, Sweden

Macrocypridina lives at depths of 800 m, where residual daylight is very weak. It has a pair of mobile apposition compound eyes with large lenses, wide rhabdoms and high acceptance angles, all of which contribute to a calculated sensitivity comparable with the superposition eyes of deep-water decapod crustaceans. The axes of the 27 ommatidia in each eye are not uniformly distributed in space, with a modest acute zone in the anteroventral region. Here the interommatidial angles are about 6°, compared with 20° at the rear of the eye.

The eyes make two kinds of spontaneous movements: large slow rotations of up to 50° around a transverse axis, anda superimposed 2 Hz tremor with an amplitude of 5°.

Key words: eye, eye-movement, ostracod, deep-sea

Accepted on September 8, 1989

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