Visual processes in African cichlid fishes

东非大裂谷湖泊中的慈鲷鱼为研究性选择提供了极好的天然实验室。马拉维湖有1 000多个特有物种，在营养适应和行为方面具有惊人的多样性。让这个适应性辐射的例子如此令人兴奋的是，它在很短的时间内进化出来。关键的行为决定，如选择伴侣，深刻地影响着一个人的健康。性选择在很大程度上依赖于视觉线索，这些线索必须迅速转化为适当的行为，最终使适应性最大化。雌性慈鲷能够通过身体颜色和其他可能的视觉线索，在视觉上区分自己物种的雄性和密切相关的物种。基于种内颜色信号的配偶选择在维持物种的生物多样性方面起着至关重要的作用，当物种是同域的，而不是生态分化。此外，在这些慈鲷成功的配偶选择需要在时间和空间动态光环境中的急性视觉歧视。因此，在慈鲷的颜色的作用被认为是中央慈鲷的多样化在非洲的五大湖，但我们的了解的基础上，身体颜色和偏振模式和功能特性的慈鲷视觉系统仍然相当有限。

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.