Dragonfly Eye Color

Their massive globular eyes should have been a clue. It turns out dragonflies have souped-up colour vision that's better than anything ever seen in the animal world. We humans have what's.

Blue is one of the most common dragonfly colors, visible on the body, eyes, and wings. Some blue species include the blue emperor dragonfly and the blue dasher. Dragonflies are colorful and large.

The dorsal eyes of Sympetrum (below), and other dragonflies, contain yellow screening pigments in combination with a very high frequency of blue receptors, as well as a fovea. The dragonfly's brain then processes and assembles these inputs into a mosaic-like image. While this mosaic vision may not offer the same detailed resolution as a human eye, it provides an incredibly wide panoramic view.

This extensive field of vision contributes to their rapid processing, allowing them to perceive their surroundings efficiently. Dragonflies (and bees) have the largest compound eyes of any insect; each containing up to 30,000 facets, and the eyes cover most of the insect's head, resembling a motorcycle helmet. Color patterns vary as do wing designs and lengths can run as long as 5 inches (as with the "Giant Darner").

Bulging eyes are set to the sides of the head and each contains thousands of honeycomb. Eye of the Dragonfly Fun fact: The hexagon is the most common shape in nature. The hexagons in this image are in the eye of a dragonfly.

Each hexagonal rod, called an ommatidium, contains major structures that have analogues/counterparts in our own eyes. Dragonflies' eyes work in a completely different way to our eyes, which by comparison, are rather simple structures. If you look closely at a dragonfly's eyes, you'll find they're a mosaic of units called ommatidia.

Each ommatidium points in a slightly different direction and contains a tiny lens. Eyes: Dragonflies possess large, multifaceted compound eyes that provide nearly 360-degree vision. These eyes are made up of thousands of individual lenses, allowing them to detect movement and color effectively.