title: An ultraviolet absorbing pigment causes a narrow-band violet receptor and a single-peaked green receptor in the eye of the butterfly Papilio.
abstract: The distal photoreceptors in the tiered retina of Papilio exhibit different spectral sensitivities. There are at least two types of short-wavelength sensitive receptors: an ultraviolet receptor with a normal spectral shape and a violet receptor with a very narrow spectral bandwidth. Furthermore, a blue receptor, a double-peaked green receptor and a single-peaked green receptor exist. The violet receptor and single-peaked green receptor are only found in ommatidia that fluoresce under ultraviolet illumination. About 28% of the ommatidia in the ventral half of the retina exhibit the UV-induced fluorescence. The fluorescence originates from an ultraviolet-absorbing pigment, located in the most distal 70 microns of the ommatidium, that acts as an absorption filter, both for a UV visual pigment, causing the narrow spectral sensitivity of the violet receptor, and for a green visual pigment, causing a single-peaked green receptor.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Integrated Science, Yokohama City University, Japan. arikawa@yokohama-cu.ac.jp
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Arikawa
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mizuno
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Scholten
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kinoshita
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Seki
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kitamoto
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Stavenga
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002080:Butterflies / Q000502:physiology*; D003118:Color Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D005453:Fluorescence; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D015591:Microspectrophotometry; D008954:Models, Biological; D017956:Photoreceptor Cells, Invertebrate / Q000502:physiology*; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays; D014801:Vitamin A
chemical_list: D014801:Vitamin A