The closely related A. gamma is also active during the day and has normal superposition eyes, with very effective pupil.

Species-specific spectral tuning of motion vision in butterflies Supple et al. investigate the spectral sensitivity of motion-sensitive descending neurons (DNs) connecting the brain to thoracic motor centers in butterflies. Optic flow-sensitive DNs are spectrally b...

Nice video explainer to go along with this cool article about spectral tuning of motion vision in butterflies in relation to wing color: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

Species-specific spectral tuning of motion vision in butterflies Supple et al. investigate the spectral sensitivity of motion-sensitive descending neurons (DNs) connecting the brain to thoracic motor centers in butterflies. Optic flow-sensitive DNs are spectrally b...

Butterfly motion and color vision, studied by recordings from descending neurons with multispectral stimulation: wide-field broadband and color-tuned target-selective neurons, matched to wing coloration. Very happy to have contributed to the article by Jack Supple. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Convergent iridescence and divergent chemical signals in sympatric sister-species of Amazonian butterflies Ecological interactions exert contrasting evolutionary pressures on sympatric Morpho butterflies, promoting convergence in iridescence but divergence in chemical cues, illustrating how ecological inte...

My first paper as a first author is officially out 🎉 @elife.bsky.social

We show that the iridescent colour of Morphos 🦋 tends to converge in sympatry while their chemical signals diverge, illustrating the constrasting effect natural and sexual selection on trait evolution.

doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

Polarization vision and the physiological basis for trichromatic vision in Philaenus spumarius: Understanding host‐seeking behaviour in insect vectors for Xylella fastidiosa control We investigated the role of vision in host-seeking behaviour by Philaenus spumarius, the main European vector of Xylella fastidiosa, through an integrated anatomical, optical, physiological, and beha...

Olive quick decline syndrome is a disaster happening right now. We investigate the insect vector using anatomy, single cell recordings and behavior. The spittlebug is a trichromat, attracted to polarized light, which might be useful in trapping. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Pupil dynamics reveal the tuning of tortricid moths to diel activity - Journal of Comparative Physiology A Insect compound eyes adapt in response to average stimulus intensity, but the adaptation is mediated also by intrinsic circadian rhythms and abiotic factors like temperature, which are indirectly related to the stimulus. We studied the effect of light, circadian rhythm, temperature and body size on light adaptation in Grapholita molesta (GM), Lobesia botrana (LB) and Cydia pomonella (CP) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae). These moths have superposition compound eyes with identical trichromatic photoreceptor sets and temporal resolution; however, the adults are sexually active before (GM), during (LB) or after (CP) sunset, and experience very different light intensity and temperature variations during their activity period. Their eyes were examined with infrared pupillometry, light microscopy and micro-CT. The compound eyes are very small to medium-sized, with a clearly visible superposition pupil. The pupil reflectance of adults entrained to a 12/12 h light/dark cycle for 2 days maintained the entrained rhythm for days, closing and opening during the subjective day and night, respectively. Circadian rhythm was the most robust in CP. A fully open pupil was forced to close with a light pulse, and pupil brightness changes were monitored at 15 and 22 °C. The experiment revealed complex and different pupil dynamics among species at both temperatures. GM, the smallest species, was most affected by the lower temperature. The experimental paradigm can be used for high-throughput, non-invasive monitoring of multiple species’ response to climate change, and to chemical and light pollution.

How cool is it to place three moths under an IR USB microscope and monitor their pupil across days, at different temperatures? link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Graded opsin co-expression along the butterfly retina fine tunes the spectral sensitivity of a colour-opponent cell across the visual field - Journal of Comparative Physiology A Compound eyes deliver a vast stream of information to the tiny insect brains. To maximize the information content and minimize the redundancy of neural signals, insect eyes are built so to encode the relevant and filter out the unimportant elements of the visual environment. Terrestrial habitats have a predictable spatio-spectral structure, which can be matched by the distribution of photoreceptors with different spectral sensitivities across the retina. Here, we investigate the retinal organization of the nymphalid butterfly Heliconius melpomene using single-cell recordings, immunohistochemistry and eye shine imaging. The ventral retina is enriched with ommatidia, which contain red screening pigments that shape the spectral sensitivity of basal red receptors R9, while their long visual fibre photoreceptors R1&2, expressing a long-wavelength (L) opsin, are synaptically inhibited by R9 and directly participate in colour vision. These G + R– receptors frequently co-express the L opsin with the blue (B) or ultraviolet (U) opsin. U&L opsin-co-expressing R1&2 are scarce, while B&L co-expression is frequent in the ventral ommatidia and gradually diminishes towards the eye equator, where G + R– receptors express the L opsin only. In this region, G + R– receptors are further inhibited by blue-sensitive receptors. With electrophysiology matching immunohistochemistry, we reveal the fine tuning of spectral sensitivity of a single photoreceptor class across the dorso-ventral axis of the butterfly compound eye. Similar tuning is found in other nymphalid butterflies across the phylogeny, suggesting that this adaptation is ancestral and confers an advantage to those diurnal nymphalids, equipped with the cellular toolkit for colour vision in the red.

It's always a happy day when your PhD student, in this case, Andrew Dang, publishes another paper from their #dissertation. This paper describes an astonishing 15 different ommatidial types in this butterfly eye. Well-done Andy and team! #vision #colsci link.springer.com/article/10.1...

It turns out that many Nymphalid butterflies have a colorama screen filter embedded in their eyes.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Our findings on bees' photoreceptors are now officially published in Biology Letters of the Royal Society Publishing!! Thanks again for a productive collaboration @jjfosterlab.bsky.social and @gregoeur.bsky.social !!
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

This is what the high meadows (mt. Olympus in the back) look like if there are red-loving beetles around! We revisit the 2012 study on Glaphyridae (link.springer.com/article/10.1...) and reveal the basis for their visual preferences. journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

I'm really happy to share the first preprint of my PhD work in @jjfosterlab.bsky.social! During a fruitful collaboration with @gregoeur.bsky.social, we uncovered a surprising feature of bees' eyes!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...