Visual pigments are the light-absorbing molecules that mediate vision. They consist of an apoprotein, opsin, covalently linked to cis-retinal. This opsin produces visual pigments with maximal absorption in the blue-green region of the spectrum. Expressed in all of the seven retinular cells (R1-R7) forming the main rhabdom in each ommatidium. Phosphorylated on some or all of the serine and threonine residues present in the C-terminal region. Belongs to the G-protein coupled receptor 1 family. Opsin subfamily.