Best Insects with Ingenious Vision

Image Source: Wikipedia

Red dragonfly – multifaceted eyes with multichromatic vision

Large, faceted eyes. Dragonflies are swift predators, and their vision helps them hunt. Dragonfly eyes have ommatidia. Each eye has several ommatidia. Ommatidia have opsin photoreceptor proteins. The red dragonfly contains 20 opsins, each detecting a different light wavelength, according to studies. Opsins are ordered on ommatidia to make object detection easier. Dragonflies can perceive more colours than humans due to their eye structure. Dragonfly vision is wide.

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Striped horsefly – multicolored compound eyes that can detect polarized light.

Horsefly eyes have multicoloured stripes. These insects' complex eyes are fascinating. Upper eye parts have huge ommatidia, while lower eye parts with stripes have fewer ommatidia. Horsefly eyes are organised to identify disguised animals. Polarized light helps horseflies find egg-laying water. Horseflies prefer polarised light, thus painting stripes on cattle can deter them from landing.

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Common bluebottle butterfly – the highest diversity of color detection in insects

As flower-eaters, butterflies have good colour vision. The bluebottle butterfly is remarkable because: Each ommatidia has nine receptor cells. Each ommatidia has unique colours and characteristics. The bluebottle butterfly's photoreceptors are red, blue, green, UV, violet, and blue-green. These classes have 15 photoreceptors. Because butterflies have three types of ommatidia and 15 types of photoreceptors, they can sense colour hues and characteristics well.

Image Source: Wikipedia

Sunburst diving beetle – larvae with bifocal eyes

The beetle is black with yellow markings. The adult beetle's vision isn't exceptional, but the larvae's eyes are. Sunburst diving beetle larvae have 12 eyes, 6 on each side. Four tubular, forward-facing eyes. These four "main eyes" have two retinas. Retinas have 12 levels of photoreceptors. Two retinas operate as bifocal lenses to sharpen images. Sunburst beetle larvae hunt in water, so their distinctive eye structure helps them track prey.