ACTION SPECTRUM AND THRESHOLD SENSITIVITY OF ENTRAINMENT OF ORCADIAN RUNNING ACTIVITY IN THE COCKROACH PERIPLANETA AMERICANA

Abstract— The interaction between the compound eye and the circadian timing system for running activity in the cockroach, Periplaneta americana , has been investigated by measuring the action spectrum for entrainment of such behavior by imposed photic stimuli. Test wavelengths were selected which spanned the spectral range of the dichromatic retina of this insect and intensities of such lights for which half of a population of animals failed to be entrained (threshold) were determined. Stimuli were presented either with a 12:12 light–dark regime or for 12h/day on a continuous background of orange light. The latter procedure altered the balance of sensitivity in the two groups of color receptors in the eye. A comparison of the resulting action spectra and the spectral sensitivities of receptors and visual interneurons measured under similar conditions suggest that the entrainment mechanism is dominated by the receptor group most sensitive to long wavelength light. Furthermore, the eye-clock mechanism shows an extraordinarily high sensitivity to such stimuli. We estimate that a mean flux of about 5 photons/eye/s is sufficient to entrain the behavior. The implications of these results are discussed.