Meeting Abstract

5.5  Saturday, Jan. 4 09:00  Vision and the adaptive radiation of Hawaii Megalagrion damselflies SCALES, JA; RIVERA, JA; BUTLER, MA*; University of Hawaii; University of Hawaii; University of Hawaii mbutler@hawaii.edu

Adaptive radiations are the result of exhuberant diversification to the exploitation of new resources, typically food or substrate. Diversification in response to light environment has been little explored, and only implicated in aquatic radiations. We used an adaptive radiation of Hawaiian Megalagrion damselflies which vary tremendously in ecology to demonstrate that (i) visual specialization to light can be important in the terrestrial habitat, (ii) regional variation in the eye can be used to fine-tune vision to environmental challenges, and (iii) that visual adaptation can be decoupled from size, giving species access to previously unaccessible “niches”. Given that much of the world’s biodiversity lives in complex light environments, this work suggests an important mechanism underlying the distribution and diversity of many animals in nature.