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First published online May 1, 2006
Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 1904-1913 (2006)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2006
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02223

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Partial coherence and other optical delicacies of lepidopteran superposition eyes

D. G. Stavenga

Department of Neurobiophysics, University of Groningen, NL 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands

e-mail: D.G.Stavenga{at}rug.nl

Accepted 20 March 2006

Superposition eyes are generally thought to function ideally when the eye is spherical and with rhabdom tips in the focal plane of the imaging optics of facet lenses and crystalline cones. Anatomical data as well as direct optical measurements demonstrate that the superposition eyes of moths and skippers often deviate severely from the expected ideal case. Part of the deviation has been attributed to diffraction at the single facet lens, which was taken to be an essential limit to spatial resolution, because light traveling through different facet lenses was assumed to be incoherent. By considering the two-dimensional facet lens lattice, it is here demonstrated that many facets within a superposition aperture transmit coherent light, allowing a much sharper image than possible with single facet lens diffraction. Partial coherence therefore is an important aspect of superposition imaging. It is argued that broadening of the photoreceptor acceptance angles occurs because of optical errors in the facet lens-crystalline cone system other than diffraction. The transmittance of the superposition aperture of moths and skippers is improved by the corneal nipple arrays of the facet lenses, but quantitative assessment shows that the effect is minor.

Key words: diffraction, corneal nipple array, moth, Lepidoptera, skipper, optical path length