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 August 4, 2005
Journal of Experimental Biology 208, iii (2005)
Copyright © 2005 The Company of Biologists Limited
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01799
This Article
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 Related articles in JEB
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
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 Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by van Bergen, Y.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by van Bergen, Y.

Inside JEB

DAMSELFISH SEE THE LIGHT

Yfke van Bergen

yfke{at}biologists.com


The world is filled with polarized light, but unfortunately we're oblivious to it. While we have to accept the limitations of our visual capacities, some birds and insects eagerly exploit their ability to see polarized light. But can any animals actually discriminate between different orientations of polarized light? Martina Mussi, Theodore Haimberger and Craig Hawryshyn set out to test whether damselfish can detect differences in the angle, or e-vector, of UV polarized light (p. 3037).

Hawryshyn and his colleagues trained damselfish to swim towards a particular e-vector orientation (0° or 90°) of UV polarized light. When the team gave the trained fish a choice between two light beams with 0° and 90° e-vector orientations, they found that damselfish chose the `correct' beam over 80% of the time. What's more, fish made the right choice regardless of brightness differences between the two beams, so they don't simply rely on differences in light intensity. The team concludes that damselfish can clearly discriminate between the horizontal and the vertical plane of UV polarized light. But when the team filtered out the light beams' UV wavelengths, the fish chose randomly, suggesting that damselfish need UV light to distinguish between different e-vectors.

How might damselfish use this curious ability? It could give them an edge when they're hunting transparent plankton in their underwater homes; plankton exoskeletons scatter polarized light, so hungry damselfish with an eye for different e-vectors may find it easier to spot their bite-sized meals.

References

Mussi, M., Haimberger, T. J. and Hawryshyn, C. W. (2005). Behavioural discrimination of polarized light in the damselfish Chromis viridis (family Pomacentridae). J. Exp. Biol. 208,3037 -3046.[Abstract/Free Full Text]


Related articles in JEB:

Behavioural discrimination of polarized light in the damselfish Chromis viridis (family Pomacentridae)
Martina Mussi, Theodore J. Haimberger, and Craig W. Hawryshyn
JEB 2005 208: 3037-3046. [Abstract] [Full Text]  




This Article
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 Related articles in JEB
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
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 Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by van Bergen, Y.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by van Bergen, Y.