This unusual larva of coleoptera has four eyes, do you know the function of the third and fourth ocelli in this larva collected in the soil. Please ID the species if possible. The locality is Quindio, Colombia.
Hello Luis Miguel,
This is a Cicindelidae larva, they are really awesome... I don't know if its possible to get species level ID, and sadly I can't answer your main question.
I agree with Vincent.
The larvae live in tubes in the banks of streams and ponds. The flat head plugs the hole. They wait until some poor fool walks too close and then they pounce on their snack. So the ocelli probably help the larva see prey or detect movement.
Thank you Vincent and Timothy. The larva contains modified teeth in the fifth abdominal segment to be attached to the walls of the hole. By the way I photographed this tiger beetle walking near the hole where I collected the larva. It looks like Neotetracha (Megacephala) fulgida or N. sobrina. There is a similar image in the Carabidae of the world web page. What do you think. http://carabidae.org/taxa/neotetracha-naviaux-2007
Indeed this could be a Neotetracha larva, but I'm not sure they can be identified to species... Let's hope a specialist can help !
ID by picture is a great first guess. However, there were a number of beetles on the website that lacked a picture, and most had only a single picture. Thus you get no feeling for the level of variability in the different species. Furthermore, color is not always well preserved and can change over time (especially with suboptimal storage conditions). Thus, we don't know how representative the color is in the pictures on the website. The best route is still using keys (or the local world expert in Tiger beetles if present), and preserved specimens.
You took a nice picture :)
see : Multitasking in an eye: the unusual organization of the Thermonectus marmoratus principal larval eyes allows for far and near vision and might aid in depth perception
Annette Stowasser, Elke K. Buschbeck Journal of Experimental Biology 2014 217: 250
see too: Journal of Comparative Physiology A October 1995, Volume 177, Issue 5, pp 591-599 Optical and physiological properties of the larval visual system of the tiger beetle, Cicindela chinensis A. Mizutani , Y. Toh
Michel
Dear Michel:
Thanks for your effort, and for the great articles, very useful
Regards
Luis Miguel
This might be impossible to imagine, a kind of stereoscopic vision multiplied by 2.
I agree with Timothy Ebert. These larvae of tiger beetles are waiting for their prey in vertical tunnels in the soil, just sticking with the frontal part of the head. The dislocation of the four ocelli (stemmata) helps in the perception of the presence and movement of potential prey at 360° around the position of the larva. It is possible that the usefulness of this provision is high especially when the prey is very close, helping the larva, with a better perception, to move rapidly in the best way to grab the prey. We must not forget that these visual organs, as we know, don't have the possibility of 'accommodation', i.e. to focus an object at different distances from the 'eye' itself. So, four 'eyes' in such a position can provide a better stereoscopic vision of a single moving object, differentially focused in the space by each 'eye', and therefore better localized. This is my hypothesis. Regards,
Rinaldo Nicoli
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