Insect Vision
Insect eyes have evolved to work in ways very different than our own. In this four-part series, we’re animating the anatomy of compound eyes and ocelli. We also dare to ask, what does the world look like to insects, anyway?
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
A four-part series currently in production
Part 1: Apposition Eye | 3:20
Many day-active insects have a kind of compound eye called an apposition (or photopic) eye. In the first of a four-part series, we peek into the peepers of a carpenter ant (Camponotus pennsylvanicus) to see how its apposition eyes collect light.
Part 2: Superposition Eye | 3:26
How do nocturnal insects see so well after the sun goes down? In our second video on insect vision, we reveal how the superposition (or scotopic) eyes of an amorous firefly (Photuris pennsylvanica) are specially adapted for low light.
Part 3: Ocelli | 3:22
Many insects—like an adorable worker honey bee (Apis mellifera)—have small eyes called ocelli that are totally different from their compound eyes. In part 3, we’re looking at the anatomy of the honey bee’s ocelli to help explain what these so-called “simple eyes” may actually do.
Part 4: What Do Insects See? | 5:58
Movies usually get how insects see all wrong—but what does right look like? We’re taking everything we’ve learned about insect vision and imagining how the world might appear through their eyes.
Our References for this Series
R. F. Chapman, Cambridge University Press, 2013
The Insects An Outline of Entomology, 4th edition
Penny J. Gullan and Peter S. Cranston, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010
Silent Sparks
Sara Lewis, Princeton University Press, 2016
The Ants
Bert Holldobler and E. O. Wilson, Harvard University Press, 1990
Bees: Their Visions, Chemical Senses, and Language
Karl Von Frisch, Cornell University Press, 1971 (Revised Edition)
The Biology of the Honey Bee
Mark L. Winston, Harvard University Press, 1987
Evolution’s Witness: How Eyes Evolved
Ivan R. Schwab, Oxford University Press, 2012
Insects: Their Natural History and Diversity
Stephen A. Marshall, Firefly Books, 2006
Cell Biology, 2nd edition
Thomas D. Pollard and William C. Earnshaw, Elsevier, 2008
Invertebrate Zoology: A Functional Evolutionary Approach, 7th edition
Edward E. Ruppert, Richard F. Fox, and Robert D. Barnes, Thomson-Brooks/Cole, 2004
Evolution: The Story of Life
Douglas Palmer and Peter Barrett, University of California Press, 2009
Visual Acuity in Insects
M.F. Land, Annual Review of Entomology, 1997
Neurobiology of polarization vision
Rüdiger Wehner, Trends in Neurosciences, 1989
The Eye of the Firefly Photuris
G. A. Horridge, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 1969
The remarkable visual capacities of nocturnal insects: vision at the limits with small eyes and tiny brains
Eric J. Warrant, Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences, 2017
Ocellar optics in nocturnal and diurnal bees and wasps
Eric J. Warrant et. al., Arthropod Structure & Development, 2007
The organization of honeybee ocelli: Regional specializations and rhabdom arrangements
Willi Ribi, Eric Warrant, and Jochen Zeil, Arthropod Structure & Development, 2011
Information Processing in the Insect Ocellar System: Comparative Approaches to the Evolution of Visual Processing and Neural Circuits
Makoto Mizunami, Advances in Insect Physiology, 1995