Meeting Abstract

P1.6  Saturday, Jan. 4 15:30  Behavioral Responses to Visual Cues in Blackline Hawaiian Damselflies LINKEM, CN*; BUTLER, MA; Univ. of Hawaii, Manoa; Univ. of Hawaii, Manoa cnlinkem@hawaii.edu

The Blackline Hawaiian Damselfly, Megalagrion nigrohamatum nigrolineatum is a species that belongs to an adaptive radiation of damselflies in Hawai’i. Like dragonflies, damselflies have exceptional vision as they have large eyes, are aerial predators that capture their prey in flight, and are colorful with many sexual dimorphisms. This study aimed to test their color vision as well as to explore whether they use color as an important ecological signal. To test this, four different colored beads were presented to perched males: red, blue, green, and black. Both males and females of M. n. nigrolineatum can have these colorations on their eyes, thorax, and abdomen, so for each bead color, there was a variety of response types. We categorized their responses as attacking, tracking, avoiding, or no response. We tested to see if these damselflies are using the colors as a sensory cue to elicit the above behavioral responses. Other variables such as time of day, damselfly takeoff distance, and forward irradiance were measured to test if any of these factors determine damselfly response behavior.