Response of a Single Retinula Cell to Polarized Light

Abstract

IT appears to be a well established fact that some arthropods use polarized light as a kind of light compass. von Frisch¹ has shown clearly that honey bee workers utilize polarized light from the blue sky to identify the direction of a food source. Wellington² reported that adult flies can also exhibit orientation relative to the direction of vibration of polarized light. These reports suggest that the arthropod photoreceptor, both the compound eye and the ocelli, has a kind of polarizer in the visual organ. Wulff³ has reviewed the many attempts that have been made to localize the possible polarizer in the compound eye, and to find the physiological mechanism involved in the reception of polarized light in the compound eye, but no conclusion on this problem seems to have been reached.