• Properties of infrared radiation

Perception of • ‘seeing’ short wavelength

IR light
infrared • thermo-reception
• ‘sensing’ longer IR
radiation wavelengths :
- prey detection
- detection of fires

Like ultraviolet, infrared is I

‘light’ beyond the human’s N
spectral sensitivity range F
R
A
R
E
D

Infrared
Like other radiation, photograph:

objects can reflect or reflected ‘light’

(ca. 800-1200
emit infrared waves. nm)
Thermograph:
It can be associated with
‘heat’
‘light’ or with ‘heat’
( ca. 3000 -
14000 nm)

1
 Most animals have wider
Infrared perceived as visual spectra than
‘light’, using mammals
photoreceptors

The
butterflies’
Some butterflies can see the ‘red’
short-wave IR as ‘light’. receptor
They cannot ‘see’ an object’s also
‘heat’- evoked IR absorbs in
the (very)
near
infrared

Butterflies may use their IR sensitivity

• Wavelengths longer than about
to detect wing patterns or green plants.
1.2µm are not energy-rich enough
(The mesophyll of leaves scatters IR, hence to bring about chemical changes
healthy leaves can be detected by their high IR (e.g. cis-retinal to all-trans retinal).
reflection.)
• Regular photoreceptors are not
able to detect those IR wavelengths.

• When IR radiation is absorbed,

tissue will get warmer

2
 Thermo-receptors
• Different thermoreceptors in vertebrates and
invertebrates (e.g. warm, hot and cold)
• Temperature - sensitive K+ channels (voltage-
gated) in vertebrates, C. elegans, Drosophila
•Insects feature thermo-sensitive neurons
(cold and warm cells);
• most often found on antennae (butterflies,
bees, moths, locust, cockroach) or
tarsi (ticks);

• Some thermo-receptors also respond to agonists: • respond to small temperature changes;

cold- and menthol-sensitive receptor
(CMR1; K+, Ca++ conductance) • not suited for perception of IR radiation (at
Mammalian capsaicin receptor: heat-activated biologically meaningful amplitudes).
ion channel in nociceptors

Thermoreceptors are often Thermoreceptors respond to changes in

associated with hygro- ambient temperature (air, substrate)
receptors in sensilla
embedded within the cuticle

Interneurons may respond to warming and

cooling and integrate temperature with odor
or mechanosensory information

Emission of
radiation is
temperature
dependent

3
 Boas, pythons, and pit vipers (e.g. rattlesnakes) use
IR to detect prey. Python max. IR sensitivity: 8-12 µm;
Warm- emission maximum of mammalian/bird prey : 10µm

blooded
animals emit
infrared
radiation
(‘heat’)

‘Normal’ thermoreceptors rely on Snakes use thermoreceptors to

contact or convective heat. They
can sit deeper within the skin or
body (vertebrates).
Receptors for radiant heat have
a small (thermal) mass, sit close
to the surface, are isolated or
cooled (snake pit organs)
detect IR radiation as heat
(increased temperature of IR
organ).
The same is true for some
beetles, bloodsucking bugs and
probably other insects
(mosquitoes?).

Blood-sucking bugs Rhodnius and Rhodnius bugs visit an IR emitting window

Triatoma (vectors for Chagas disease) (37oC) more frequently than one without IR.
find their hosts using body heat (IR They perceive the radiation, not just the
radiation) ambient (air) temperature.

S. Trenner
Rhodnius prolixus

4
Warm stimuli are probably perceived by non-
specialized dendrites in the body-wall of Rhodnius Some beetles can detect
forest fires

Merimna atrata

The Australian ‘fire beetle’ has an Like in boid snakes, the IR organ
abdominal infrared organ contains a ‘dendritic mass’
(a single sensory cell)

The IR
organ
of the Acanthocnemius
Australian nigricans uses a
fire beetle simliar
responds to mechanisms to
temperature detect forest fires
changes
(phasic-tonic
responses;
spontaneous
activity)

5
Acanthocnemus’ IR organ is air-
isolated (higher sensitivity?) and
comprises 30 warm receptors
(spatial resolution?)
Buprestid Melanophila beetles:
• IR sensitive pit organs behind middle legs
• detect and approach forest fires
from up to 80 km.
• IR sensilla: ‘photomechanic’ mechanism
(heat-induced strain)

From the IR sensilla, axons

The IR organ
(pit organ) project to the beetle’s ventral
contains ca. nerve cord
60 domed IR
sensilla. The
organ is
covered with
wax filaments
(not IR
opaque)

IR-sensitive axons extend The maximum sensitivity of

to the brain. They are Melanophila IR receptors is
probably derived from hair 3.2-3.5µm
afferents

6
Melanophila
IR sensitivity
exactly
matches
forest fire
emission