Art, Feminism, and the Sexual Evolution of Jewelwing Damselflies

Upon graduating from Grinnell College in 2001, Idelle Cooper, associate professor of biology, leapt from the sweeping plains of the prairie into the colourful forests and waterfalls of tropical Hawai’i, where she volunteered with the US Geological Survey to study the species distribution of jewelwing damselflies on the island. At that time, colour variation in Hawaiian damselfly populations was still scarcely documented or studied. Cooper recalled early mornings spent along pristine streams that ran through “beautiful” protected forest sites, where one could see “extraordinary” species of animals and plants that occurred nowhere else. Her job was to collect damselflies for projects that would quantify aspects of their phenotype and behaviour.

Then, Cooper made a new discovery. “Everyone thought that for most of these damselfly species, the males are red, and the females are green,” she says. “And I found red females.” The feeling of that discovery is one that would stay with her for a long time. “I'd seen something that no one else had seen yet … That kind of discovery motivates my research still.”

Cooper went on to pursue a Ph.D. in ecology, evolution, and behaviour at Indiana University Bloomington, before returning to Hawai’i to work with Jackie Brown, professor of biology at Grinnell, until his unexpected passing in 2019. After a stint teaching at James Madison University, Cooper is now going into her second year teaching at Grinnell. She returned in Fall 2023 with a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to conduct further studies on speciation processes in damselfly populations, this time from Northern Iowa to Canada. “I just continued on the path because there are so many questions to answer,” she says. “But easily, [my focus] could’ve been any number of other animals or plants, because there are intriguing questions everywhere.”

Cooper describes her research as explorations of “classic evolutionary questions” — interspersed with perspectives from the fine arts and social justice.“I’m studying colour and shape, but the way that I go about it is greatly influenced by the art classes that I took here,” she explains. “Biology and art both teach people how to look for patterns and appreciate variation.” Through her teaching, Cooper wants students to always “question assumptions,” no matter how “unbiased” they may think they are.“Our social environment affects how we study other organisms,” she says. “We often use the animal world as justification or examples for how humans should be, which is dangerous.” For instance, she explains, studies of sexual selection and mating processes had long painted female animals as sly and picky, while males were competitive, pushy, and indiscriminate — characterizations that impact gender stereotypes to this day.

Instead, she says, sexual selection “may go in both directions.” Previous damselfly studies showed that when multiple species of damselfly coexist, males were “choosy” themselves — they preferred conspecific females (from the same species) to court. “Hybrids of two species probably don’t do very well,” says Cooper. “We are studying traits that are under selection differently from sexual selection and species recognition. Species recognition is often for the average trait value of a species, and sexual selection is often for more extreme traits. By studying both male and female mate choice, we may be able to understand how traits can respond to different types of selection.”

With her recent NSF grant, Cooper hopes that she can better understand such interactions between two specific jewelwing damselfly species that overlap geographically — the ebony jewelwing, which lives near the Canadian border and to the south, and the river jewelwing, whose range extends north from northern Iowa. She is also looking forward to mentoring a new generation of Grinnellians through bringing student researchers onto these projects, and in the classroom. “I want to work with students who are motivated, curious and interested in exploring the world,” she says. “It leads to a lot more discovery.”

Cooper describes her family background as conservative, and she now emphasizes the importance of engaging with a variety of backgrounds and worldviews. As a professor, she wants to contribute to improving science education and provide students opportunities to pursue their own discoveries. She also credits Professor Jackie Brown as one of her biggest inspirations in the field. “He represented how exciting and fun it was to study evolution in the field,” she says. “He represented the liberal arts idea of exploring all parts of academic wonder.” For Cooper, a liberal arts education at Grinnell allowed her to discover new areas of study that she would never have realised she enjoyed. She ended up graduating with honours in biology and studio art. “It’s hard to know how different fields integrate until you give it a try,” she says. “There’s all sorts of connections between fields that are continuing to be made, and Grinnell students can go on to make links that weren’t there before.”

Cooper says her first year back at Grinnell was “exactly” what she had been hoping for. However, she is raring to get back into the field in the summer with students, where the damselflies dart around and the rivers glisten in the sun. While other biologists may be drawn to the job by the sophisticated analytical techniques and fancy laboratory machines, Cooper says she simply “loves being outside.” “The world is so interesting, and varied, and full of discoveries,” she said. “And our students are so interesting and enthusiastic. That makes it really fun to come to work.”