Abstract

This paper presents results of a study of the ultrastructural features of pigment cells (chromatophores) in cuticular epidermal tissue from juvenile specimens of Cherax tenuimanus, aged 0 to 4 months, using light, confocal and electron microscopy. Chromatophores and their associated pigment granules, designated types I to III, are compared with similar cells identified in earlier crustacean chromatophore literature: Type I granules may be tentatively identified as blue granules, Type II granules compare with previously named red cells and the Type III granules bear similarities to granular contents of the cell identified as a white chromatophore. Type I granules, reported as inclusions in multi-pigmented cells in earlier studies of shrimp chromatophores, are unaccompanied by any other granule type in the blue pigment cell of C. tenuimanus. Specific nomenclature of the cells themselves, known from the literature as erythrophores (both blue and red/orange granules) and leucophores (white granules) cannot be applied until biochemical analysis confirms the nature of the pigment(s) in each cell type. Granules observed in the three chromatophore types were: in Type I cells, large membrane-bound granules with a crystalloid content similar to previously described structures containing a caroteno-protein complex; in Type II cells, spherical granules with morphological characteristics typical of those reported for carotenoid pigments; in Type III cells, large spherical membrane-bound granules morphologically similar to structures identified as containing colourless pteridines. Chromatophores previously thought to have been black in colour are actually white cells. Chromatophores containing black pigment granules remain to be observed.

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