Abstract
The principal eyes of jumping spiders (Salticidae) possess a unique visual apparatus1 of unknown phylogenetic origin. Their retinas, with four axial tiers of receptive segments, lie at the end of long, motile tubes2 and have the transverse profiles of narrow, vertical 'boomerangs' with very small horizontal acceptance angles. No other ocellar retina resembles them, and no evolutionary pathway for the transition between the simple, hemispherical monolayers of receptors found elsewhere and the sophisticated jumping spider eye has been proposed. We show that the post-embryonic morphogenesis of a principal retina may explain how it evolved. Conformational changes generate the narrow retinal mosaics from a hemisphere of presumptive receptive segments with hexagonal packing and irregular microvilli distributed around their perimeters much as they are in the retinas of more primitive spiders3. Tiering is a consequence of the conformational change. Our explanation has significant implications for the evolution of the Salticidae.
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References
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Blest, A., Carter, M. Morphogenesis of a tiered principal retina and the evolution of jumping spiders. Nature 328, 152–155 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/328152a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/328152a0
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