Effect of Season and Sex on the Photopic Spectral Sensitivity of the Three-Spined Stickleback

It is now almost two decades since Tinbergen and his associates (Tinbergen, 1951 ; Tinbergen & van Iersel, 1947; van Iersel, 1953) identified the relevant features of visual displays which trigger sexual and parental behaviour in the three-spined stickleback. Specifically, they showed that during the breeding season, when the female’s abdomen is swollen with eggs, the latter serves as a visual sign stimulus which triggers appropriate sexual behaviour in the sensitized male. In addition, the red colouring which the belly of the male acquires during this period was found to elicit, in other sensitized males, the complex behaviour patterns which characterize the defence of territory in this species.