spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

First published online September 9, 2003
This Article
Right arrow Summary Freely available
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Mäthger, L. M.
Right arrow Articles by Marshall, N. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Mäthger, L. M.
Right arrow Articles by Marshall, N. J.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Rapid colour changes in multilayer reflecting stripes in the paradise whiptail, Pentapodus paradiseus

L. M. Mäthger1,*, M. F. Land2, U. E. Siebeck1 and N. J. Marshall1

1 Vision, Touch and Hearing Research Centre, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
2 Sussex Centre for Neuroscience, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK



View larger version (81K):

[in a new window]
  		Fig. 1. (A) Reflective stripes of a paradise whiptail, Pentapodus paradiseus (body length, 15 cm). (B) Reflective changes of the facial stripes from blue (a), through green (b), to red (c) and back via yellow (d) and green (e) to blue (f). Approximate times (in seconds) are shown in the top left corner of each photograph.

 


View larger version (25K):

[in a new window]
  		Fig. 2. (A) Spectral measurements of reflective changes in a living fish (data normalised). 1, 2 and 3 indicate the phases shown in Fig. 1B. (B) Ratio of reflectance half-width to the peak wavelength ({Delta}{lambda}/{lambda}max, where {Delta}{lambda} is the bandwidth at 50% reflectivity, and {lambda}max is the peak wavelength). Reflectance half-widths increase with wavelength (see Fig. 1C), but the ratio {Delta}{lambda}/{lambda}max changes very little. The regression line and equation are shown in red. Predicted reflectance half-widths shown in blue (after Land, 1972Go). (C) The effect of increasing the angle of incidence on the wavelengths reflected by the reflective stripes. With increasing angle of incidence, the reflected wavelengths shift towards the shorter (blue/UV) end of the spectrum (data normalised).

 


View larger version (92K):

[in a new window]
  		Fig. 3. (A) Low-power electron micrograph of facial reflective stripe, showing a chromatophore (black pigments) surrounded by iridophore plates, which have broken away during sectioning (white gaps). (B,C) High-power electron micrographs of intact iridophore plates (electrondense regions).

 


View larger version (25K):

[in a new window]
  		Fig. 4. (A) Hyposmotic saline shifts the reflected wavelengths to the longer (red) end of the spectrum. (B) Returning the preparation to saline (or adding hyperosmotic saline) shifts the reflected wavelengths back to the shorter (blue/UV) end. (C) Norepinephrine causes the reflected wavelengths to shift to the longer end of the spectrum, while (D) adenosine shifts the wavelengths back to the shorter end.

 

Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?



© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2003