The owl-fly Libelloides [=Ascalaphus] macaronius homepage

The neuropteran owlfly Libelloides (=Ascalaphus) macaronius (Insecta: Plannipenia) was described in 1763 by the correspondant of Carolus Linnaeus, Johannes Antonius Scopoli, while he was a physician in Slovenian mining town Idria.
Ascalaphus is a daytime predator inhabitating warm, dry, uncultivated meadows from Slovenia to Caucasus, and is famous due to the unique spectral sensitivity of its dorsofrontal eye that ranges only over the ultra-violet part of the solar spectrum. Ascalaphus lives as an adult imago only for approximately two months in the summer; even then, it is actively hunting only under unobscured skies.

Photo by Janez Presern [big]

Announcement: The 5th Ascalaphus Summer School 2005

Ljubljana (SLO) and Mainz (D), July 1st-29th, 2005.

The first part of the school takes place in Slovenia, in the labs of the Animal Physiology Chair at the University of Ljubljana. The fieldwork is being performed in the classic Karst, around the village Komen.

The second part of the school takes place in Germany, in the labs of AG Wolfrum at the University of Mainz.

Topics cover a broad range of systems levels, from molecules to environment:

Ecology: phenology, population density, habitats, predators and prey
Behavioural studies: day and night activity
Ecophysiology: temperature and illumination
Sensory physiology: studies of visual optics, phototransduction and adaptation
Morphological studies of superposition eye and antennae
Biochemical studies of visual and antennal proteins
Molecular biology of ascalaphus rhodopsin

Some of the techniques used:

Jolly-Seber population estimates
Physical & floristic descriptions of habitats
Microtemperature measurements
Electroretinography, Ophtalmoscopy
Microscopy: TEM, SEM, confocal
Standard & advanced biochemical & molecular methods

Information:

Kazimir Draslar, Ljubljana [kazimir.draslar@bf.uni-lj.si]
Uwe Wolfrum, Mainz [wolfrum@mail.uni-mainz.de]

Published works

Gregor Belušič, Primož Pirih, Darko Perovšek, Peter Stušek, Gregor Zupančič, Kazimir Drašlar:
Ecophysiology through eletroretinography: Ascalaphus macaronius, a case study
International Conference "Rhabdomeric photoreceptors: Structural and Functional Organisation of Signalling Cascades", held in Bad Herrenalb on 13-15.10.2001. [PDF]
Primoz Pirih: The effect of Temperature on Adaptation and Spectral Sensitivity of the Ascalaphus Owlfly Eye (Libelloides macaronius, Insecta, Planipennia)
[graduation thesis, 2002, in Slovene, follow link]
Primoz Pirih & Peter Stusek: The effect of the temperature on the spectral sensitivity and adaptation in the Ascalaphus owl-fly
presentation, more in less in english [2001, adapted 2005] [PDF]
U. Wolfrum, G. Belusic and K. Draslar:
Structures supporting light and dark adaptation in the compound eye of Ascalaphus (Libelloides macaronius)
Goettingen Neurobiology Conference 2003, Poster #463
Kazimir Drašlar & Uwe Wolfrum:
Structures and mechanisms of light adaptation in the dorsal and the ventral part of Ascalaphus macaronius
Goettingen NWG Conference 2005. Poster #146A

[PDF]

Peter Stušek, Gregor Belušič, Gregor Zupančič, Kazimir Drašlar:
The dynamical and spectral characteristics of pupillary response in the owl-fly Ascalaphus macaronius
Goettingen NWG Conference 2005. Poster #147A