visual ecology
- Chicken colour discrimination depends on background colour
Highlighted Article: Colour discrimination performance in chickens is worse when the colours being discriminated differ greatly from the background colour. The ecological, physiological and psychophysical implications of this finding are discussed.
- More than noise: context-dependent luminance contrast discrimination in a coral reef fish (Rhinecanthus aculeatus)
Summary: Analysis of luminance detection thresholds of triggerfish (Rhinecanthus aculeatus) reveals that the receptor noise limited (RNL) model needs to be used with caution in an achromatic context.
- Artificial lighting impairs mate attraction in a nocturnal capital breeder
Summary: Artificial lighting at night (ALAN) impedes female glow worms’ ability to attract males with their glow, implicating ALAN in glow worm fecundity and long-term population survival.
- A new method for mapping spatial resolution in compound eyes suggests two visual streaks in fiddler crabs
Summary: A new method for estimating the spatial and optical resolution of compound eyes, using the 3D micro-CT images of preserved animals.
- Visual system development of the spotted unicornfish, Naso brevirostris (Acanthuridae)
Summary: Retinal topography and opsin gene expression change during ontogeny of the spotted unicornfish, Naso brevirostris, with the largest changes occurring from the larval to the juvenile stage.
- Photoresponses in the radiolar eyes of the fan worm Acromegalomma vesiculosum
Summary: Light responses from the unusual eyes on fan worm feeding tentacles reveal a high temporal resolution, broad dynamic range, and spectral tuning to blue-green light, making the eyes well suited for governing a startle response.
- Vision in the snapping shrimp Alpheus heterochaelis
Summary: Morphological, physiological and behavioral approaches demonstrate for the first time that the eyes of snapping shrimp provide spatial vision.
- How does the water springtail optically locate suitable habitats? Spectral sensitivity of phototaxis and polarotaxis in Podura aquatica
Summary: The hexapod Podura aquatica possesses at least two visual pigments and its polarization sensitivity functions in the shorter, blue spectral range following the tendency of polarotactic aquatic insects.
- An Ishihara-style test of animal colour vision
Editors' Choice: A new way to test animal colour vision based on methods to determine whether humans are ‘colour blind’, and a demonstration of how this method works with triggerfish.
- Spectral sensitivity in ray-finned fishes: diversity, ecology and shared descent
Summary: Using the largest meta-analysis of spectral sensitivity to date, we examine how shared evolutionary history and certain ecological variables underlie variation in chromacy across ray-finned fishes.