How do butterflies see the world?

Butterflies can see the colours of mates and flowers better than humans. We will explore how colour and motion vision are wired in their brains, and how this affects their behaviour. Presented by Dr Yuri Ogawa, Research Fellow at Flinders University. Yuri has been studying insect vision for over 10 years and her passion for neuroethology continues to grow with each year.

Sensory systems such as eyes, hearing or smelling organs, receive information from their surrounds. The inputs from them are essential for behaviour.  Animals rely on vision to perform daily activities including finding food, finding mating partners and moving around in the world.

Insects have compound eyes with thousands of tiny lenses.  Yuri studied the physiological basis of colour vision in a sulphur butterfly, Colias erate, under the supervision of Professor Kentaro Arikawa during her PhD studies at Sokendai Hayama, Japan. By measuring the electrical activity of cells in the retina, we found that the butterflies have eight distinct types of spectral photoreceptors, which differ between males and females, especially in red receptors. The distinctive red receptors of the eye may relate to female-specific behaviour such as finding high-quality leaves on which they lay eggs.

After finishing her PhD studies in 2013, Yuri moved to Australia and started working as a postdoc. She has been fascinated by the peripheral and more central mechanisms underlying vision in invertebrates because the variations in the anatomy and physiology of the eye thus likely reflect differences in habitat and life history.  Understanding how animals see their world with limited but specialised sensory systems and neurons in a small brain is her research aim.

You can attend this event at the Plympton Community Centre or virtually using Zoom communications software.

If you plan to attend in person, strict adherence to COVID-19 restrictions is important, and Community Centre management requires that

(1) visitors are fully vaccinated against Covid19 and carry proof of this with them while attending the venue

(2) physical distancing rules apply at all times 

(3) people wear masks except when eating or drinking. 

Please bring supper to share served as per Covid requirements. Bring your own cup, tea/coffee will be supplied.

If you plan to attend in person, please send an email in advance to secretary@butterflyconservationsa.net.au stating event name(s), your name and vaccination status.

If you have not received a designated job to help organize the meeting you will not be admitted to the Hall until 6.15 pm.

Please sign in and provide your contact details (for insurance and contact tracing) and please use hand sanitiser.

Entry will be by donation (minimum $2) and bring a plate to share and a cup.   Will be great to see you there!

If you plan to attend virtually, please register in advance for this meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUqcOmtrDkoE9Q9EtqWi_A21kyukUvr5MBv 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

The Plympton Community Centre,  34 Long Street, Plympton.

(200 metres E of Marion Rd, and 300 metres N of Anzac Highway).

Bus from the city via Anzac Highway. Routes: 245, 248, 262, 263, 265, M44, N262.

Closest stop is Stop 9, then approximately 350 metre walk along Long Street.

Bus from the city via Marion Road. Routes 100, 101, H20.
Closest stop is Stop 10 (east side is approximately 100 metres south of Long street). Stop 10 (west side is on the other side of Moringie Ave. approx. 100 metres north of Long Street). Then approx.250 metre walk along Long Street.

At the start of meetings, a BCSA committee member gives a ten-minute presentation on a ‘Butterfly of the Month’.

Public talks schedule

If an advertised speaker is not available, we will try to provide an alternative speaker of similar interest.

The views of presenters are their personal views. The BCSA does not necessarily endorse any views expressed.