Physiology of the black and red chromatophores ofCallinectes sapidus

✍ Scribed by Fingerman, Milton

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1956
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 897 KB
• Volume: 133
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-104X
• DOI: 10.1002/jez.1401330105

✦ Synopsis

Dispersion and concentration of chromatophoric pigments in crustaceans are controlled by several factors. Light and temperature are the major environmental influences ; daily and tidal rhythms of color change are the primary endogenous ones.

Responses to light fall into two categories: (1) primary responses, which are responses to total illumination and not dependent upon the eyes and (2) secondary or background responses, which are mediated through the eyes. Dispersion of chromatophoric pigments with increased illurnination is the typical primary response. Responses of white chromatophores to a background are usually opposite to black pigment responses. Primary and secondary responses have been demonstrated in a variety of crustaceans : the shrimp HippoZyte variams by Keeble and Gamble ('00) and Kleinholz and Welsh ( '37) ; the prawn Leander serratus by Stephenson ( '34) ; the isopod Ligia oceamica by H. Smith ('38) ; the fiddler crab Uca pugiZator by Brown and Sandeen ('48) ; and the prawns Palaemolzetes pugio and Palaemonetes palndosus by Fingerman and Tinkle ('56).

Adaptations to background (secondary responses) depend upon the ratio of incident light intensity to reflected light intensity measured at the surface of the eye. Incident light