Meeting Abstract

P1-99  Saturday, Jan. 4  Color Vision in Nymphalid Butterfly, Adelpha fessonia DANG, A*; BERNARD, GD; OLGUIN, AR; MACIAS-MUNOZ, A; LAWRENCE, JP; HILL, RI; MULLEN, SP; BRISCOE, AD; University of California, Irvine; University of Washington, Seattle; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and University of California, Irvine; University of California, Irvine; University of California, Irvine; University of the Pacific; Boston University; University of California, Irvine danga5@uci.edu

Mimicry is a defensive strategy that helps prey avoid predation by resembling unprofitable species. More is known about the vision and behavior of predators compared to prey species’ visual systems. We investigate the visual system of A. fessonia using epi-microspectrophotometry (epi-MSP), optophysiology, spectroscopy data, opsin phylogenetics, immunohistochemistry and opsin gene expression among various tissues. Eyeshine of A. fessonia suggests an absence of heterogeneously-distributed red filtering pigments found in other nymphalid species. RNA-Seq revealed the presence of three opsin mRNAs encoding long-, blue- and ultraviolet (UV)-sensitive opsins. Epi-MSP showed a 530 nm peak sensitivity in the long wavelength (LW)-sensitive region of light and optophysiology showed an UV-sensitivity to light at 355 nm. We infer the peak sensitivity for the blue rhodopsin at ~431 nm using spectroscopy data and amino acid sequences from other Adelpha species. Immunohistochemistry will confirm the presence and abundance of the LW, blue and UV opsins while transcripts per million will determine the expression levels of their mRNAs. Our results reveal characteristics of A. fessonia eyes which can be compared to other Adelpha and nymphalid species. As Adelpha possess expansive mimicry complexes within Nymphalidae, examining visual systems in individual species is vital to understanding how mimetic species discriminate one from another to maintain mimicry complexes while avoiding hybridization.