Ghasemi, F.1 and Gholami, S.2*
Bats are the second largest order of mammals and they are useful animal in ecosystem. Vision is fundamentally important sense in animals for perceiving their environment, but in bats less well known. So in present study, the isolated retina of the frugivore bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) by scanning and transmission electron microscope. The retinal cells and layer thickness were measured by using Grids-stero lite software. Findings showed that large eye was hemispherical, and ratio of the eye’s diameter to the body length was 1:18.83. Retina layers conform to the general mammalian blueprint, but it was undulating with 106.61±16.19μm thickness. Inner nuclear layer was the thickest layer (18.52±1.55). Retina is duplex with dominant rod cells, especially in centralis [≈25cell/(100μ)2], and Cone/ Rod ratios was 1/ 7.95. Furthermore, 4 morphologically different types of cells with different density and distribution were observed in inner nuclear layer. The retinal epithelial was thin with poor pigmentation and its surface was covered by microvilli. According to obtained results, this species of bat can be active in both dim light and daylight.
