MOTION-SENSITIVE CELLS: PUTATIVE LARVAL NEURONES INCORPORATED INTO THE OPTIC LOBE OF THE ADULT SWALLOWTAIL BUTTERFLY

Abstract

Intracellular recordings were made from neurones with large somata situated at the anteromedial edge of the medulla of the swallowtail butterfly Papilio xuthus; the neurones were then filled with Lucifer Yellow. These cells are putative larval visual interneurones incorporated into the adult optic lobe of the butterfly. There are four classes of motion-sensitive neurones. Two have a dendritic arborization in the dorsal half of the medulla and project an axon to the medial protocerebrum or the contralateral medulla. They respond to vertical downward motion with a strong burst of action potentials and their background activities are inhibited by motion in the opposite direction. Variations in position of the dendritic fields suggest that each group of neurones forms a coherent set of cells detecting vertical motion in the dorsal half of the visual field of the eye. The third class of neurones connects the lobula plate to the midbrain and is preferentially sensitive to vertical upward motion. The fourth class of neurones has a dendritic arborization in the lobula. These neurones are tonically excited by a moving grating irrespective of the stimulus orientation and movement direction. The presence of motion-sensitive medulla neurones suggests that the detection of local motion is completed in the distal medulla.