The evolution of color vision in dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata)

Odonates are entirely visual organisms and are characterized as having the largest eyes among arthropods. However, very little research has been conducted on their color vision system and even less is known about the evolution of their visual systems. Opsins are light sensitive proteins in the eye that determine the color vision capabilities of an organism. Most insects have at least three opsin copies present in the retina, each sensitive to different parts of the visible spectrum. However, it is unclear how many opsin duplications are present and how widely these duplications are distributed throughout the major insect groups. We look across the two suborders of Odonata to examine the evolution of opsins. Our work has resulted in the baseline data to allow us to trace the evolutionary history of the opsin gene complex in dragonflies and damselflies.