The world of insects is diverse and interesting. You can study it indefinitely, but I would like to find the answer: is there a five-eyed insect in nature? It's hard to believe, but such a phenomenon exists. There are quite a lot of creatures that have several pairs of eyes. For example, a spider has 8 eyes. But the five-eyed insect is a familiar fly, and also a bee, a hornet and a dragonfly. Let's talk more about flies and bees, since these insects are of interest to many.
Clicking fly
The fly is a pesky insect that harms us every year, but it survives almost entirely thanks to man. There are over 1,000 different species of flies, and many of them live near human habitation.
The study of the visual organs of flies is of great interest. The five-eyed insect fly sees the world in a special way. The main pair of eyes in her consists of separate small segments-eye. Each such eye is called a facet, and the entire organ of vision as a whole is called a facet eye. In total, an ordinary housefly's eye has 4,000 small facet lenses. With such a complex organ, flies can see objects well at close range, especially when crawling over them. However, nature decided that this was not enough for the fly, and addedthe insect has three more simple eyes on its forehead. Compound compound eyes on the sides of the head and 3 simple eyes on the front of the head provide this five-eyed insect with an almost circular view.
The compound eyes of flies are huge in relation to the size of their heads. They are especially large in males. The eyes of many males are connected on the forehead. The picture in front of the compound eyes of an insect changes at a frequency of 250 Hz, for comparison, this figure in humans is 60 Hz. That is why the fly is so hard to catch or swat, because it seems to her that the fly swatter is flying like in slow motion.
Five-eyed bee
Here, it would seem, what else can surprise us? But it is possible! Imagine, a bee has several eyes on the top of its head. It is also a five-eyed insect, but its additional organs are not located on the forehead, but behind the head.
The two large side eyes of a bee, like those of flies, are faceted. Each cell conveys information not about the whole object, but only about its small part, and the insect's brain adds up the overall picture. The information received by simple eyes joins the general image. That's just the light flux that the bee is able to distinguish consists of shorter waves. The insect distinguishes ultraviolet waves and sees many more shades.
Why do bees have so many eyes?
Researchers have put forward the theory that bees use 3 simple eyes to observe closely spaced objects. And during the flight, they are guided by faceted vision. However, beekeeperscompletely agree with this statement. They noticed that if a bee takes damage to its compound eyes, it starts bumping into objects like a blind bee. But if simple eyes are damaged, then vision does not disappear, it's just that the insect reacts more slowly to the outside world.
Such a complex vision system is needed for bees to protect their family and get food. And for males, drones, keen eyesight helps to find a female for mating.
Some interesting facts
As you know, the dragonfly is also a five-eyed insect. But her organs of vision are even more complicated. The dragonfly eye has 28 thousand facets and can capture ultraviolet waves. In addition, the dragonfly polarizes the image, which allows it to reduce reflections from the surface of the water.
Another interesting fact about dragonfly vision. This insect has panoramic vision. Moreover, the review is 360 °.
An interesting fact is that hornets, another five-eyed insects, despite their resemblance to bees, have additional eyes located not on the crown, but on the forehead. They form a small triangle between a pair of compound eyes.
