Fluorescence is emitted by diverse living organisms. The analysis and interpretation of these signals may give information about their physiological state, ways of communication among species and the presence of specific chemicals. In this manuscript we review the state of the art in the research on the fluorescence emitted by plant leaves, fruits, flowers, avians, butterflies, beetles, dragonflies, millipedes, cockroaches, bees, spiders, scorpions and sea organisms and discuss its relevance in nature.

Fluorescence, the absorption of short-wavelength electromagnetic radiation reemitted at longer wavelengths, has been suggested to play several biological roles in metazoans. This phenomenon is uncommon in tetrapods, being restricted mostly to parrots and marine turtles. We report fluorescence in amphibians, in the tree frog Hypsiboas punctatus, showing that fluorescence in living frogs is produced by a combination of lymph and glandular emission, with pigmentary cell filtering in the skin. The chemical origin of fluorescence was traced to a class of fluorescent compounds derived from dihydroisoquinolinone, here named hyloins. We show that fluorescence contributes 18−29% of the total emerging light under twilight and nocturnal scenarios, largely enhancing brightness of the individuals and matching the sensitivity of night vision in amphibians. These results introduce an unprecedented source of pigmentation in amphibians and highlight the potential relevance of fluorescence in visual perception in terrestrial environments.Amphibia | Anura | Hylidae | visual ecology | fluorophore F luorescence occurs when short-wavelength electromagnetic radiation is absorbed and then reemitted at longer wavelength. This phenomenon is broadly distributed in marine and terrestrial environments and is found in distantly related organisms (1). Among aquatic vertebrates, fluorescence is widespread phylogenetically within cartilaginous and ray-finned fishes (2) and has been documented in sea turtles (3), whereas among terrestrial vertebrates, it is only known to occur in parrots (4). With few exceptions (5-7), the molecular basis of most of those reports remains unstudied. Many roles have been suggested for fluorescence in animals, such as photoprotection (8), antioxidation (9), and visual communication (10)(11)(12)(13)(14).Amphibians (frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians) have a wide range of skin coloration (15) caused by an integumental pigmentary system in which the combination of different types of chromatophore cells create coloration through the integration of chemical and structural features (16). Although the chemical nature and distribution of chromophores has been studied (16), fluorescence has not been reported in any of the 7,600 species of amphibians (17). Here we report a case of fluorescence in this highly diverse group, introduce a class of fluorescent compounds, and assess its importance by quantifying its contribution to overall coloration under natural light conditions. Results and DiscussionFluorescence in Hypsiboas punctatus. The South American tree frog H. punctatus (Family Hylidae) is unusual among amphibians in possessing a translucent skin, a crystal-containing layer in the peritonea and bladder, and a high concentration of biliverdin in lymph and tissues. We observed that living adults and juveniles illuminated with UV-A blue light produced a bright blue/green fluorescent emission (Fig. 1 A-C) that was clearly discernible from the body surface of the specimens. To characterize the fluorescence of f...

Rose Bengal adsorbed on microgranular cellulose was studied in the solid phase by total and diffuse reflectance and steady-state emission spectroscopy. A simple monomer-dimer equilibrium fitted reflectance data up to dye loadings of 4 x 10(-7) mol (g cellulose)(-1) and allowed calculation of monomer and dimer spectra. Further increase of dye loading resulted in the formation of higher aggregates. Observed emission and excitation spectra and quantum yields were corrected for reabsorption and reemission of luminescence, using a previously developed model, within the assumption that only monomers are luminescent [M. G. Lagorio, L. E. Dicelio, M. I. Litter and E. San Roman, J. Chem. Soc., Faraday Trans., 1998, 94, 419]. An apparent increase of fluorescence quantum yield with dye loading was found, which was attributed to the occurrence of dimer fluorescence. Extension of the model to two luminescent species (i.e. monomer and dimer) yielded constant fluorescence quantum yields for the monomer, phiM= 0.120 +/- 0.004, and for the dimer, phiD= 0.070 +/- 0.006. The monomer quantum yield is close to the value found for the same dye in basic ethanol. The presence of fluorescent dimers and calculated quantum yields are supported by analysis of the excitation spectra and other experimental evidence. The possible occurrence of non-radiative energy transfer and the effect of surface charge on the properties of the dimer are analyzed.