Ommatidium
Component of compound eyes of arthropods / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The compound eyes of arthropods like insects, crustaceans and millipedes[1] are composed of units called ommatidia (sg.: ommatidium). An ommatidium contains a cluster of photoreceptor cells surrounded by support cells and pigment cells. The outer part of the ommatidium is overlaid with a transparent cornea. Each ommatidium is innervated by one axon bundle (usually consisting of 6–9 axons, depending on the number of rhabdomeres)[2]: 162 and provides the brain with one picture element. The brain forms an image from these independent picture elements. The number of ommatidia in the eye depends upon the type of arthropod and range from as low as 5 as in the Antarctic isopod Glyptonotus antarcticus,[3] or a handful in the primitive Zygentoma, to around 30,000 in larger Anisoptera dragonflies and some Sphingidae moths.[4]