THE 6-EYED STOMATOPOD

Stomatopods (mantis shrimps) possess one of the most complex visual sy stems in the animal kingdom. Each eye is capable of monocular distance judgement, colour vision involving eight or more primary channels and polarisation vision. This involves a series of eye movements unique a mong the crustaceans. Furthermore, each eye usually acts almost entire ly independently of die other. Colour, in particular, seems to be impo rtant to stomatopods. Many live in spectrally diverse tropical coral r eef habitats and possess coloured markings which are used in communica tion between and within species.