Ocular media transmission of coral reef fish - can coral reef fish see ultraviolet light?

Many coral reef fish are beautifully coloured and the reflectance spectra o f their colour patterns may include UVa wavelengths (315-400 nm) that are l argely invisible to the human eye (Losey, G. S., Cronin, T. W., Goldsmith, T. H., David, H., Marshall, N. J., & McFarland, W.N, (1999). The uv visual world of fishes: a review. Journal of Fish Biology, 54, 921-943; Marshall, N. J. & Oberwinkler, J. (1999). The colourful world of the mantis shrimp. N ature, 401, 873-874). Before the possible functional significance of UV pat terns can be investigated, it is of course essential to establish whether c oral reef fishes can see ultraviolet light. As a means of tackling this que stion, in this study the transmittance of the ocular media of 211 coral ree f fish species was measured. It was found that the ocular media of 50.2% of the examined species strongly absorb light of wavelengths below 400 nm, wh ich makes the perception of UV in these fish very unlikely. The remaining 4 9.8% of the species studied possess ocular media that do transmit UV light, making the perception of UV possible. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All r ights reserved.