Vision, behavior and coloration matches light environment in Neotropical butterflies

Animals vary both in the visual signals they produce and in the eyes they use to perceive these signals; however, in most animals the production and perception of reflected light signals depends on the light available in the environment. Animals that occur in the same light environment should have similar visual abilities to maximize information visually obtained from their surroundings. We predicted that different species of open habitat butterflies will have similar visual sensitivity as compared to a species that occurs in closed, understory habitat. Furthermore, we predicted that individual preference for light environment corresponds to natural habitat. Lastly, we predicted that absolute sensitivity will increase allometrically with body size. We collected 12 species of tropical butterflies, from 3 different families, all living in disturbed habitat in Central Panama and one species that occurs in forest understory. We then compared visual sensitivity with phylogeny, body size, and behavioral preference. We found trends that support the hypothesis that animals from similar environments converge on similar behavior and visual abilities, although there was much variation between species. This work sets a foundation for future comparative work to include visual signals as well as more species of butterflies from closed habitats.