How the insects see

The sense of sight is perhaps the most important for animals. It allows them to see the world around them, discover their food, notice a danger. But we can not think that all living beings on the planet see the same. Insects have a different view to us, then we explain how it is. Insects have two types of eyes: simple and compound.

How are the eyes of insects

The vast majority of insects have two types of eyes : simple or ocelli and compound or faceted. The simple eyes are arranged in the center of the forehead and are, generally, two or three. The compound eyes, as the name implies, are made up of small eyes in the shape of an elongated tube. The outer surface of each one of them has a face or facet in the form of a hexagon, similar to the carving of a brilliant and, inside, a lens or lens and the retina or membrane to collect the luminous impressions. The whole forms the cornea or outer transparent membrane, which is convex, bulging and constitutes the compound eye. The number of tubes that form the compound eye is variable: certain ants have 9 and the fly 400 and the dragonfly 28, 000.

How the insects see

Since each tube has a lens, the light that penetrates through them captures in the retina a part of the object that the insect looks at. To see the total, an image is formed "in a mosaic", that is, fragmented, and because it is different from the human image, which is continuous. In addition, the eyes of insects are adapted to their livelihood, and usually, they capture better what is in motion, than what is at rest.

Insects see the colors

Naturalists have done many studies to know if insects distinguish the color of flowers and other objects, the results are amazing. Thus, today it is known that the bee does not distinguish well the color red, and when they approach flowers of this color, they do so because they reflect blue light, which insects can capture. They are also sensitive to ultraviolet rays, which we can not perceive.