External Ocelli in Lepidoptera Previously Considered to be Anocellate

Abstract

DORSAL ocelli are simple photoreceptors found in nymphal and adult hemimetabolous insects and adult holometabolous insects^1,2. 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 anocellate^2–4. 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.