STOMATOPOD PHOTORECEPTOR SPECTRAL TUNING AS AN ADAPTATION FOR COLOR CONSTANCY IN WATER

Where colour is used in communication absolute judgement of signalling spectra is important, and failures of colour constancy may Limit perf ormance, Stomatopod crustaceans have unusual eyes in which the midband contains ten or more classes of photoreceptor. For constancy based on receptor adaptation to a fixed background, elementary theory predicts and we confirm by modelling, that stomatopods' narrow-band receptors outperform more broadly tuned receptors, Similar considerations could account for the small spectral separation of receptors in each midband row. Thus, stomatopods seem to trade-off sensitivity and signal-to-no ise ratio for increased colour constancy. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Lt d.