Abstract
IT is well known that the paradise fish, Macropodus opereularis, is capable of changing its colour. Y. C. Chin and J. C. Li (Peking Nat. Hist. Bull., 15; 1941) have shown that such changes can be induced by changes in light intensity, temperature and the environmental colour. Their experiments indicate that in the performance of this reflex the eyes act as the receptors and the melanophores as the effectors. The receptor and effector systems communicate in the medulla oblongata. The melanophore nerves appear to be of two kinds, one concentrating and the other dispersive. The actual changes in the melanophores are brought about by the secretion of neurohumours secreted at the ends of the nerves and these are not transmitted by the blood but diffuse from cell to cell. The authors have attempted to express the results in quantitative terms that will permit of more accurate comparisons in future work.
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Colour Changes in the Paradise Fish. Nature 148, 195 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/148195a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/148195a0