Abstract
DORSAL ocelli are simple photoreceptors found in nymphal and adult hemimetabolous insects and adult holometabolous insects1,2. They were thought to have a variable distribution, and to be absent in many representatives of several insect orders ; in Lepidoptera several families have been considered to be entirely or partially anocellate2–4. In sphingids it has been reported that their large superposition eyes have assumed the function of the ocelli4, but it is now known that the sphingids are not anocellate. Ocelli were described within the dorsal protocerebrum in the adult of Sphinx convoluvi by Berlese5 and recently internal ocelli have been reported in several adult sphingids, saturniids and citheroniids6. There have been no descriptions of external ocelli in sphingids, saturniids, citheroniids, or any Ropalocera7.
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References
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Borror, D. J., and Delong, D. M., An Introduction to the Study of Insects (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1971).
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DICKENS, J., EATON, J. External Ocelli in Lepidoptera Previously Considered to be Anocellate. Nature 242, 205–206 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/242205a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/242205a0
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