High diversity of arthropod colour vision: from genes to ecology

Colour vision allows animals to use the information contained in the spectrum of light to control important behavioural decisions such as selection of habitats, food or mates. Among arthropods, the largest animal phylum, we find completely colour-blind species as well as species with up to 40 different opsin genes or more than 10 spectral types of photoreceptors, we find a large diversity of optical methods shaping spectral sensitivity, we find eyes with different colour vision systems looking into the dorsal and ventral hemisphere, and species in which males and females see the world in different colours. The behavioural use of colour vision shows an equally astonishing diversity. Only the neural mechanisms underlying this sensory ability seems surprisingly conserved—not only within the phylum, but even between arthropods and the other well-studied phylum, chordates. The papers in this special issue allow a glimpse into the colourful world of arthropod colour vision, and besides giving an overview this introduction highlights how much more research is needed to fill in the many missing pieces of this large puzzle. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Understanding colour vision: molecular, physiological, neuronal and behavioural studies in arthropods’.