Visual processes in African cichlid fishes

东非裂谷湖泊中的慈鱼为研究性选择提供了一个极好的天然实验室。马拉维湖有1000多种特有物种，在营养适应和行为方面具有惊人的多样性。这个自适应辐射的例子之所以如此令人兴奋，是因为它在相当短的时间内进化了。关键的行为决定，比如选择伴侣，会深刻地影响一个人的健康状况。性选择可能在很大程度上依赖于视觉提示，这些提示必须迅速转化为适当的行为行为，最终使健康最大化。雌性慈鱼能够通过身体颜色和可能的其他视觉线索，在视觉上区分自己物种的雄性和近亲物种。在物种共生且没有生态分化的情况下，基于种内颜色信号的交配选择在维持生物多样性方面起着关键作用。此外，在时间和空间动态的光环境中，成功的交配选择需要敏锐的视觉辨别能力。因此，在非洲五大湖中，颜色的作用被认为是叶蝉多样化的核心，然而，我们对鱼体颜色和极化模式的基础以及叶蝉视觉系统的功能特征的了解仍然相当有限。

Cichlid fishes in the East African Rift Valley lakes provide an excellent natural laboratory for the study of sexual selection. Lake Malawi has more than 1,000 endemic species with a striking diversity in trophic adaptations and behaviours. What makes this example of adaptive radiation so exciting is that it evolved in a notably short time. Critical behavioural decisions such as choosing a mate profoundly affect an individual's fitness. Sexual selection can depend heavily on visual cues that must be rapidly translated into appropriate behavioural actions that eventually maximize fitness. Female cichlids are able to visually discriminate between males of their own species and closely related species, using body color and possibly other visual cues. Mate choice based on intraspecific color signaling plays a critical role in maintaining biodiversity when species are sympatric and not ecologically differentiated. Furthermore, successful mate choice in these cichlids necessitates acute visual discrimination in a temporally and spatially dynamic light environment. The role of color in cichlids is thus considered central to cichlid diversification in the great lakes of Africa, yet our understanding of the basis for body color and polarization patterns and the functional characteristics of cichlid visual systems remain quite limited.