QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by BAYLOR, E. R. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by BAYLOR, E. R.

Journal of Experimental Biology 36,369-376 (1959)
Published by Company of Biologists 1959

The Responses of Snails to Polarized Light

EDWARD R. BAYLOR ¹

¹ Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Mass

1. Experiments were performed to test whether the polarized light responses of the marine snail, Nassa obsoleta, are mediated by a polarizing analyser within the eye or by the pattern of intensities reflected from the substratum.

2. Snails able to see only the substratum orient at right angles to the plane of vibration of vertically incident polarized light.

3. Snails unable to see the substratum but able to see the overhead source of polarized light fail to orient to the polarized light

4. Implications regarding the rare occurrence of intra-ocular polarizing analysers and the improbability of extensive animal use of polarized light as a navigational aid are discussed.

Note:

Contribution no. 996 from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Aided by a grant from National Institutes of Health.