visual ecology
- 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.
- 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.