Retinal Specialization and Feeding Behavior in Nocturnal vs. Diurnal Moths

以花为食的昆虫特别依赖视觉。 大多数关于昆虫的视觉研究都是在白天或白天活动的物种上进行的。 我们对夜行性昆虫（如飞蛾）的视觉适应知之甚少，这种适应使它们能够在热带森林等复杂环境中机动，并在接近黑暗的地方找到花朵。 视觉引导的行为，如花蜜喂养从花是由特定的颜色敏感的感觉细胞和专门的细分视网膜的大复眼。 本计画利用生物化学与分子生物学的方法，对天蛾眼睛中的色觉感光蛋白质（视紫红质）进行表征与定位。 对其他具有日间进食和非进食成虫的天蛾物种的行为和解剖工作与夜间进食的物种进行了比较。 结果将突出的视觉喂养在夜间的特殊适应，并与蜜蜂和蝴蝶访花的大型知识库进行比较。 该项目具有生态学意义，因为热带植物授粉的很大一部分依赖于天蛾，它对进化生物学和视觉神经生物学也很重要。

Insects that feed on flowers are particularly dependent on vision. Most visual research on insects has been done on species active during the day, or diurnal. We know little about the visual adaptations in nocturnal insects like moths that allow them to maneuver through a complex environment such as tropical forest, and find flowers in near darkness. Visually-guided behaviors such as nectar feeding from flowers are driven by specific color-sensitive sensory cells and specialized subdivisions of the retina of their large compound eyes. This project uses biochemistry and molecular biology to characterize and localize the light-sensitive proteins (rhodopsins) for color vision in the eye of the hawkmoth Manduca. Behavioral and anatomical work on other hawkmoth species which have day-feeding and non-feeding adults are compared to the night-feeding species. Results will highlight the particular adaptations for visual feeding at night, and be compared with the large knowledge base about flower visitation by bees and butterflies. This project has ecological significance because a substantial proportion of tropical plant pollination depends on hawkmoths, and it also is important for evolutionary biology, as well as visual neurobiology.