Automated charting of the visual space of insect compound eyes

This paper describes the automatic measurement of the spatial organization of the visual axes of insect compound eyes, which consist of several thousands of visual units called ommatidia. Each ommatidium samples the optical information from a small solid angle, with an approximately Gaussiandistributed sensitivity (half-width of the order of 1 ̊) centered around a visual axis. Together, the ommatidia gather the optical information from virtually the full surroundings. The spatial distribution of the visual axes thus determines the eye’s spatial resolution. Knowledge of the optical organization of a compound eye and its visual acuity is crucial for quantitative studies of the neural processing of visual information. Here we present an automated procedure for mapping a compound eye’s visual axes, using an intrinsic optical phenomenon, the pseudopupil. We outline the optomechanical setup for scanning insect eyes, and use experimental results obtained from a housefly, Musca domestica, to illustrate the steps in the measurement procedure. Note to practitioners Mapping of the visual axis distribution of compound eyes has previously been performed manually, involving extremely tedious procedures. The development of an automated analysis of the optical organization of compound eyes allows assembling the necessary data in a much more effective, time-saving way. The necessary experimental steps require a number of algorithms that we have developed using Matlab. The optical and mechanical elements of the experimental setup are mostly standard.