Evidence for a two pigment visual system in the fiddler crab, Uca thayeri (original) (raw)
Related papers
Spectral sensitivity in some marine crustacea
Vision Research, 1974
The relation between habitat and the presence of multiple pigment systems in compound eyes of marine crustaceans has been examined. Electroretinographic determinations of spectral sensitivity during selective adaptation have been performed on three quasi-terrestrial crabs and compared to intracellular measurements in a swimming crab. The results indicate that ali four possess a single pigment system with a similar absorption spectrum. These spectra agree with electrophysiological and microspectrophotometric data from other investigators. We conclude that the capacity for color vision is not necessarily related to the habitat in which these animals are faund.
Journal of Comparative Physiology ? A, 1982
1. Spectral and polarizational sensitivities of dark adapted retinular cells in the ventral regions of the compound eye of the crabs Callinectes and Carcinus have been measured with intracellular recording of responses to flashes of monochromatic light. The majority was maximally sensitive to green light (508 nm, n = 108) and showed a mean sensitivity in the blue violet that was higher than expected from a rhodopsin like pigment (Fig. 1). 2. A small number of cells (n = 6) showed a maximum sensitivity to blue light (440 nm) and had a sensitivity function which was considerably wider than a nomogram pigment (Fig. 2). These cells were recorded in the ventral regions of the eye and ERG measurements under selective adaptation revealed statistically significant changes in the relative sensitivities to blue and red stimuli (Figs. 4 and 5). 3. PS values ranged from 1 to 13 when measured in green cells with 508 nm stimuli (n=69) with the modal value being 3. When PS was tested at 410 nm, 508 nm, and 605 nm in the same cell there was a statistically significant (0.07 log, P < 0.01) elevation of PS in the orange region of the spectrum. 4. The results are discussed in relation to the possibility of color vision in marine crustaceans.
Photoreceptors and diurnal variation in spectral sensitivity in the fiddler crab Gelasimus dampieri
Journal of Experimental Biology, 2020
Colour signals, and the ability to detect them, are important for many animals and can be vital to their survival and fitness. Fiddler crabs use colour information to detect and recognise conspecifics, but their colour vision capabilities remain unclear. Many studies have attempted to measure their spectral sensitivity and identify contributing retinular cells, but the existing evidence is inconclusive. We used electroretinogram (ERG) measurements and intracellular recordings from retinular cells to estimate the spectral sensitivity of Gelasimus dampieri and to track diurnal changes in spectral sensitivity. G. dampieri has a broad spectral sensitivity and is most sensitive to wavelengths between 420 to 460 nm. Selective adaptation experiments uncovered an ultraviolet (UV) retinular cell with a peak sensitivity shorter than 360 nm. The species’ spectral sensitivity above 400 nm is too broad to be fitted by a single visual pigment and using optical modelling we provide evidence that a...
Zeitschrift f�r Vergleichende Physiologie, 1970
Spectral sensitivity curves for four "sustaining" neurons in the optic tracts of Procambarus clarkii were determined under dark-adapted and chromatic light-adapted conditions. The 21nax in the dark-adapted state is at 570 to 575 nm, and shifts to longer wavelengths in the violet-light-adapted state . Red-light-adaptation suppresses the sensitivity of the yellow-green receptors of the eye and alters the discharge pattern of the "sustaining" neurons, thereby exposing an input with a )~nax at 445 nm from the blue-sensitive receptors . Such data raise the possibility that" sustaining" neurons may carry information that functions in color vision.
Spectral sensitivity of vision and bioluminescence in the midwater shrimp Sergestes similis
The Biological bulletin, 1999
In the oceanic midwater environment, many fish, squid, and shrimp use luminescent countershading to remain cryptic to silhouette-scanning predators. The mid-water penaeid shrimp, Sergestes similis Hansen, responds to downward-directed light with a dim bioluminescence that dynamically matches the spectral radiance of oceanic down-welling light at depth. Although the sensory basis of luminescent countershading behavior is visual, the relationship between visual and behavioral sensitivity is poorly understood. In this study, visual spectral sensitivity, based on microspectrophotometry and electrophysiological measurements of photoreceptor response, is directly compared to the behavioral spectral efficiency of luminescent countershading. Microspectrophotometric measurements on single photoreceptors revealed only a single visual pigment with peak absorbance at 495 nm in the blue-green region of the spectrum. The peak electrophysiological spectral sensitivity of dark-adapted eyes was cent...
Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, 2002
Visual pigments in many animal species, including stomatopod crustaceans, are adapted to the photic environments inhabited by that species. However, some species occupy a diversity of environments as adults (such as a range of depths in the ocean), and a single set of visual pigments would not be equally adaptive for all habitats in which individuals live. We characterized the visual pigment complements of three species of stomatopod crustaceans, Haptosquilla trispinosa, Gonodactylellus affinis, and Gonodactylopsis spongicola, which are unusual for this group in that each lives at depths from the subtidal to several tens of meters. Using microspectrophotometry, we determined the visual pigments in all classes of main rhabdoms in individuals of each species from shallow or deep habitats. Each species expressed the typical diversity of visual pigments commonly found in stomatopods, but there was little or no evidence of differential expression of visual pigments in animals of any species collected from different depths. Vision in these species, therefore, is not tuned to spectral characteristics of the photic environment by varying the assemblages of visual pigments appearing in their retinas.
Behavioural evidence for colour vision in stomatopod crustaceans
Journal of Comparative Physiology A, 1996
If an organism can be taught to respond in a particular way to a wavelength of light, irrespective of that light's intensity, then it must be able to perceive the colour of the stimulus. No marine invertebrate has yet been shown to have colour vision. Stomatopod crustaceans (mantis shrimps) are colourful animals and their eyes have many adaptations which indicate that they are capable of such spectral analysis. We adopted an associative learning paradigm to attempt to demonstrate colour vision. Stomatopods readily learnt to choose some colours from arrays of greys, even when the correct choice colours were darker than the ones they had been trained to. Possible mechanisms underlying colour vision in these animals, and their ecological significance are discussed. A simple model is presented which may help interpret the complexstomatopod colour vision system and explain some of the learning anomalies.