Turbellarian taxonomic database

Record # 23239
Author
Title
Journal
Sopott-Ehlers B (2000)
Unusual crystalline structures in photoreceptors of Lonchoplanella axi (Plathelminthes, Rhabdocoela, 'Typhloplanoida'): functional aspects and phylogenetic implications.
Journal of Submicroscopic Cytology and Pathology, Vol 32(4): 567-571

Abstract / Notes

"Lonchoplanella axi has a pair of small dot-like pigment-cup ocelli. Each eye is composed of a single cup cell
and two sensory cells of the rhabdomeric type. The most conspicuous differentiations in the sensory cells are
spindle-shaped crystalline structures accompanying the nuclei. These structures flank the dorsolateral,
respectively ventrolateral side of the nucleus. It is supposed that these 'spindles' serve rather as an
additional shading device than as dioptrics. Since such structures in photoreceptors have hitherto not been
reported for representatives of the Plathelminthes, it is concluded that the spindle-shaped crystalline bodies
in the eyes of Lonchoplanella axi are an autapomorphic feature of this species or even an autapomorphy of the
taxon Mariplanellinae."

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