Meeting Abstract
Sending and receiving signals in a forest understory environment can be quite challenging because the light environment is heterogeneous. Hawaiian damselflies of the genus Megalagrion provide an excellent model system for examining how visual behavior and environmental heterogeneity influence visual performance. Megalagrion xanthomelas is a forest understory species that lives on small flowing streams that are heavily shaded. It is highly territorial and brightly colored species. Using microspectrophotometry in single-cell recordings, we determined that Megalagrion xanthomelas has at least 4 photoreceptor classes: UV, blue, green, and red-sensitive. We measured the light environment at individual perch sites in the forward, up, and lateral directions to model the animals’ visual capabilities at the locations where individuals chose to perch. We modeled visual capabilities at these selected locations compared to random locations and found that individuals chose particular views and orientations that enhanced their visual performance.
