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Visual gene evolution and light entrapment in butterflies and moths
Presented by: Yash Sondhi, McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
Abstract: Standing outside and watching the sun set, you may not realize that light levels drop more than ten times in just ten minutes. A moonlit night is about a million times darker than a sunny afternoon. In the dark, it is harder to discriminate color, contrast, or fast motion, but most animals must deal with dramatically changing light conditions. Animals can be nocturnal (night), crepuscular (dusk or dawn), or diurnal (day), often referred to as “diel-niche”. No group better embodies these light extremes than butterflies and moths. They are close relatives, famously active in profoundly different light conditions and have more than a hundred recorded diel-niche switches. Relatively more is known about their natural history and evolutionary relationships than any other insect order, yet our understanding of their visual system is limited to a few species. In this talk, I explore how light environment has shaped the evolution of visual genes, behavior and diel-niche across butterflies and moths and how this work ties into a novel explanation for short range light entrapment of insects.
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Thomas C. Emmel Seminar Series presents: Expanding Horizons in Lepidoptera Research
Continuing from Fall 2020, the McGuire Center is hosting this webinar series as an opportunity for both early career researchers as well as established leaders in the field to present their work. We hope that you will join us to hear about current advances in many diverse fields of Lepidoptera research.