Fifteen shades of photoreceptor in a butterfly's eye
Tuesday, March 8, 2016 - 16:00
in Biology & Nature
When researchers studied the eyes of Common Bluebottles, a species of swallowtail butterfly from Australasia, they were in for a surprise. These butterflies have large eyes and use their blue-green iridescent wings for visual communication - evidence that their vision must be excellent. Even so, no-one expected to find that Common Bluebottles (Graphium sarpedon) have at least 15 different classes of "photoreceptors"—light-detecting cells comparable to the rods and cones in the human eye. Previously, no insect was known to have more than nine.