Hypothesis on monochromatic vision in scorpionflies questioned by new transcriptomic data

In the scorpionfly Panorpa, a recent study suggested monochromatic vision due to evidence of only a single opsin found in transcriptome data. To reconsider this hypothesis, the present study investigates opsin expression using transcriptome data of 21 species including representatives of all major lineages of scorpionflies (Mecoptera) and of three families of their closest relatives, the fleas (Siphonaptera). In most mecopteran species investigated, transcripts encode two opsins with predicted peak absorbances in the green, two in the blue, and one in the ultraviolet spectral region. Only in groups with reduced or absent ocelli, like Caurinus and Apteropanorpa, less than four visual opsin messenger RNAs have been identified. In addition, we found a Rh7-like opsin in transcriptome data derived from larvae of the mecopteran Nannochorista, and in two flea species. Peropsin expression was observed in two mecopterans. In light of these new data, we question the hypothesis on monochromatic vision in the genus Panorpa. In a broader phylogenetic perspective, it is suggested that the common ancestor of the monophyletic taxon Antliophora (Diptera, Mecoptera and Siphonaptera) possessed the full set of visual opsins, a Rh7-like opsin, and in addition a pteropsin as well as a peropsin. In the course of evolution individual opsins were likely lost in several lineages of this clade.