ONE TEXT FIGURE AND TWO PLATES (TWELVE FIGURES)The mechanisms of melanophore and xanthophore control in the color changes of telosts have received much attention since the classical studies of Pouchet in 1872, while only a relatively small amount of work has been devoted t o erythrophores, and the manner of their regulation. Von Frisch ( '12), in his studies on Crenilabrus and Trigla, concluded that like the melanophores and xanthophores, erythrophores were primarily under the influence of the nervous system. Abolin ('24, '25) suggested a hormonal control of red chromatophores in Phoxinus, while Giersberg ( '30, '32) concluded that both xanthophores and erythrophores of this fish were under pituitary regulation, with little or no nervous control. On the other hand, Smith and Smith ( '34, '35) have demonstrated that the erythrophores of Scorpaena and Holocentrus are influenced by the sympathetic nervous system, since cutting the sympathetic chain resulted in expansion of the denervated cells. Dalton and Goodrich ( '37) have shown that the erythrophores of Macropodus opercularis are doubly innervated as are the melanophores. While Fries ('42) has reported a nervous control of erythrophores in Gobius minutus and Labrus ossifagus, a duality of the innervating system is not established in these two species.Contribution No. 324.
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132RICHARD E. LEE Recently, while studying bottom dwelling marine teleosts at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it was noticed that the reddish distal margins of the pectoral fins of Prionotus strigatus, the red-winged" sea robin, fluctuated in brilliance with extreme rapidity when the fish was disturbed. This species is relatively abundant, and has the added advantage of being easily maintained in the laboratory. The present study was therefore undertaken in the hope that by using this animal, further evidence t o explain the mechanism of erythrophore control could be furnished.
