visual ecology
- 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.
- Short-term colour vision plasticity on the reef: changes in opsin expression under varying light conditions differ between ecologically distinct fish species
Summary: Opsin expression in adult specimens of three reef fish species belonging to two ecologically distinct families show different adaptive mechanisms to changes in available environmental light.
- Evidence for spatial vision in Chiton tuberculatus, a chiton with eyespots
Summary: Certain chitons have hundreds to thousands of eyespots (∼35 µm) distributed across their shell plates; these eyespots are associated with spatial vision.
- Not flying blind: a comparative study of photoreceptor function in flying and non-flying cockroaches
Summary: Comparison of photoreceptors of flying Panchlora and non-flying Periplaneta cockroaches using imaging and electrophysiological methods reveals prominent differences, which are discussed in relation to the visual ecological paradigm developed for Diptera.
- Disruptive colouration in reef fish: does matching the background reduce predation risk?
Summary: Vertically barred patterns provide protection for prey from visual predators even when they mismatch the spatial frequency of background habitats.
- Visual acuity in ray-finned fishes correlates with eye size and habitat
Summary: Examination of how visual acuity in ray-finned fishes correlates with morphological and ecological factors shows that both eye size and habitat type are strong predictors of acuity in this group.
- Polarization sensitivity in Collembola: an experimental study of polarotaxis in the water-surface-inhabiting springtail Podura aquatica
Summary: In behavioural choice experiments, the water springtail Podura aquatica shows polarotaxis to horizontally polarized light as well as phototaxis.