Accessory Structures of the Eye Diagram

All 14 parts on the diagram

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From the front 7

Eyebrow Arched ridges of skin above the orbits, set with short, thick hairs.
Upper eyelid The eyelids are thin, movable folds in front of the eye. The upper one is the larger and does most of the moving. Its anatomical name is the superior palpebra.
Lower eyelid It meets the upper eyelid at the two corners of the eye. Its anatomical name is the inferior palpebra.
Eyelashes They grow from the margins of both lids. They help keep dust and other particles off the eye. The anatomical name is cilia.
Medial canthus The corner where the two lids meet on the nose side. Also called the medial palpebral commissure. Tears collect here.
Lateral canthus The corner where the two lids meet on the outer side. Also called the lateral palpebral commissure. It is the sharper of the two corners.
Lacrimal gland Tears are made here. It lies just inside the orbit, above and to the outer side of the eyeball, so it is drawn with a dashed outline.

Cut through the lids 7

Orbicularis oculi This muscle closes the eyelids.
Tarsal plate A plate of dense connective tissue in each lid. It gives the lid its form and support. The upper one is the larger. Also called the tarsus.
Tarsal glands Their oily secretion slows the evaporation of the tear film. They open at the edge of the lid. Also called Meibomian glands.
Palpebral conjunctiva The conjunctiva is a thin mucous membrane. This part of it lines the inner surface of each lid.
Bulbar conjunctiva The conjunctiva covering the white of the eye. It reaches as far as the edge of the cornea. Also called the ocular conjunctiva.
Conjunctival fornix The fornix joins the palpebral and bulbar conjunctiva. It is loose, which lets the lids and the eyeball move freely.
Levator palpebrae superioris It raises the upper eyelid. It ends in the upper lid and on the upper tarsal plate.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30, a name kept only where two independent sources use it. (1) OpenStax Anatomy and Physiology 2e, section 14.1 Sensory Perception (eyelids and lashes, palpebral conjunctiva, lacrimal gland, levator palpebrae superioris), https://openstax.org/books/anatomy-and-physiology-2e/pages/14-1-sensory-perception. (2) Gray, Anatomy of the Human Body, 1918, The Accessory Organs of the Eye (eyebrows, eyelids, canthi, tarsi, tarsal glands, orbicularis oculi, fornix), https://www.bartleby.com/107/227.html. (3) TeachMeAnatomy, The Eyelids (layers of the lid, tarsal plates and glands, levator, conjunctiva, canthi), https://teachmeanatomy.info/head/organs/eye/eyelids/. (4) Wikipedia, text only: Eyelid, Conjunctiva, Meibomian gland, Accessory visual structures. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; nothing traced. The section is not to scale. Licence: own work

How it works

The first drawing is a right eye from the front. The second cuts the lids and the front of the eyeball from front to back, in a lateral view, to show the layers inside each lid.

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Outside first, then the layers of the lid

Numbers 1 to 7 are what you can see from the front, plus the lacrimal gland, dashed because it lies under the skin. In the cut view the face is to the left. Each lid has, from the outside in, skin, the orbicularis oculi (8), the tarsal plate (9) with its glands (10) and the conjunctiva (11). The conjunctiva turns back at the fornix (13) onto the eyeball (12). The layers are drawn far thicker than life.

Palpebral means of the eyelid; bulbar means of the eyeball. The fornix is the fold between the two.
The right eye is drawn, so the nose and the medial canthus are on the right of the picture.

Questions and answers

What are the accessory structures of the eye?

The parts that protect and support the eyeball: the eyebrows, the eyelids and eyelashes, the conjunctiva and the lacrimal apparatus, which makes and drains tears. Older texts also count the muscles that move the eye.

What do the tarsal glands do?

Tarsal glands, also called Meibomian glands, sit inside the tarsal plate of each lid and open at its edge. They make an oily secretion that slows the evaporation of the tear film.

What is the conjunctiva?

A thin mucous membrane. The palpebral conjunctiva lines the inside of each eyelid and the bulbar conjunctiva covers the white of the eye. They join at a loose fold, the fornix.

Which muscles open and close the eyelids?

The orbicularis oculi closes them. The levator palpebrae superioris raises the upper lid; it runs forward over the eyeball and ends in the lid and on its tarsal plate.