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Abstract

The gross morphology and the fine-structural characteristics of neurones of the second and third optic ganglia of the honeybee Apis mellifera were investigated light microscopically on the basis of Golgi (selective silver)- and reduced silver preparations. The second optic ganglion, the medulla, is ovoid in shape and has a slightly convex distal surface and a slightly concave proximal surface. The medullar outer levels are characteristically composed of neuronal arrangements showing strict precision of their geometrical spacing proximally as far as a pronounced layer of tangential fibre elements comprising the serpentine layer of the medulla. At the inner medullary levels retinotopic channels are again multiplied, and the arrangement of axons and dendrites contribute to a complex lattice. The third optic ganglion, the lobula, is interposed between the medulla and the protocerebrum. It is the site of termination of the third-order neurones. The lobula in hymenopterans appears, in contrast to dipterans, odonates and lepidopterans, as a single neuropilic mass. A short review of the electrophysiological data concerning these two ganglia has been tentatively correlated with some of the anatomical data.