Compound eye morphology of the fire ants, Solenopsis invicta invaded Southern China observed with scanning electron microscopy
Author of the article:
Author's Workplace：
Key Words：Solenopsis invicta， compound eye， morphology， sensilla
Abstract：Compound eye morphology of the worker, female alate and male alate of the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren was studied with scanning electron microscopy. The compound eye of worker had only about 110 ommatidia and it was a outward slightly convex rotundity; the female alates' was long ellipse and composed of approximate 510 ommatidia; the male's was similar to a hemisphere andhad more than 805 ommatidia; The shape of ommatidia in the central region was pentagon or hexagon and more rules, and very close, but in the rim was irregular quadrangle, pentagon or hexagon, and no close, the spacing between the individual ommitidium was very big. The ommatidium area of worker, female and male ants wereabout 500，360 and 34861 μm2 respectively, the area of different ommatidium had little change in the same grand; There were some sensilla between the ommatidia which near dorsal area in the compound eye of male and female. The length of sensilla in female alates 17.5 μm to 90.2 μm, diameter 2.16 μm to 4.29 μm, and the male alate sensilla length was 17.5 μm to 27.9 μm, diameter 1.41 μm to 2.52 μm. There was a remarkable difference and regional differentiation among sexes and castes on the shape of compound eye, the number and shape of ommatidium, and configuration on the surface.