How Insects With Compound Eyes See the World

In an enlightening episode of the Deep Look series Big Ideas, host Niba quite knowledgeably explained how insects with compound eyes see the world around them. Despite it being often portrayed as a kaleidoscope of multiple images within one frame, the insect’s eyes actually see things as a single image just like humans. However, there is quite a great deal of difference in how insects see compared to humans.

In this episode of Big Ideas from the team behind Deep Look, Niba explores how insects actually see the world — from the structure of ommatidia to motion detection, ultraviolet color vision, and the evolutionary advantage of seeing faster than we do.

Insect Compound Eyes

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.