. The biology of marine animals. Marine animals; Physiology, Comparative. COLOUR CHANGES 521 condition the melanophores appear as dark spots, but when expanded they assume a variety of radiate and stellate shapes which are characteristic of each species. Other kinds of chromatophores show similar peculiarities of form (Fig. ) (29, 54). Perhaps some of the most striking colour changes among teleosts are to be seen in certain tropical reef fishes such as the sea-perches {Epine- phelus), which have a whole series of colour phases, and can switch from one to another in the course of a few minu
. The biology of marine animals. Marine animals; Physiology, Comparative. COLOUR CHANGES 521 condition the melanophores appear as dark spots, but when expanded they assume a variety of radiate and stellate shapes which are characteristic of each species. Other kinds of chromatophores show similar peculiarities of form (Fig. ) (29, 54). Perhaps some of the most striking colour changes among teleosts are to be seen in certain tropical reef fishes such as the sea-perches {Epine- phelus), which have a whole series of colour phases, and can switch from one to another in the course of a few minutes. The Nassau grouper E. striatus has eight different colour liveries which vary from one very dark phase to one creamy white, and intermediate phases dark above, light below, with variegated markings and bands in shifting patterns (Fig. ). These several colour phases have considerable cryptic value against the Epider. Pigment cells Fig. Section through the Skin of a Teleost, Based on the Pollack Gadus pollachius, to Show the Arrangement of Pigment Cells. (After Schnakenbeck, 1926.) multicoloured backgrounds of the coral reefs. Indeed Longley, in his submarine researches, records how he was able to evoke different colour phases in reef fishes by leading individuals, with offers of food, from one kind of environment to another (24, 47, 67). Flat fishes (pleuronectids) are noteworthy for the complexity of their colour responses, adapting the fish in colour, shade and pattern to its background. As a result of these changes the animals are rendered well- nigh invisible on the muddy, sandy or gravelly bottoms which they fre- quent, and the resemblance is heightened by the tendency of the animals to bury themselves partially in the substratum. In experiments carried out with the Mediterranean flounder Bothuspodas on backgrounds with various checkerboard patterns, the fish were found to harmonize very closely with the patterns used; colour changes, however, were restricte
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