The relationship between cone pigments and behavioural sensitivity in a New World monkey (Callithrix jacchus jacchus).

Microspectrophotometric measurements of visual pigments and behavioural measurements of spectral sensitivity are reported for individual marmosets from 3 family groups. The sex differences and polymorphism that characterise the long-wave cone pigments in this species are well reflected by variations in the behavioural sensitivities. With one exception, the pattern of inheritance is compatible with a genetic model in which the long-wave pigment is specified by a single polymorphic locus on the X-chromosome. Measurements are also reported for the spectral absorbance of the marmoset lens, and these are used to reconstruct short-wave behavioural sensitivity from the microspectrophotometric measurements of the short-wave cones.