Compound Eyes of Common Whitetail Dragonfly Plathemis lydia dragonfly
A compound eye may consist of thousands of individual photoreception units. The image perceived is a combination of inputs from the numerous ommatidia (individual "eye units"), which are located on a convex surface, thus pointing in slightly different directions. Compared with simple eyes, compound eyes possess a very large view angle, and can detect fast movement and, in some cases, the polarization of light. Because the individual lenses are so small, the effects of diffraction impose a limit on the possible resolution that can be obtained. This can only be countered by increasing lens size and number — to see with a resolution comparable to our simple eyes, humans would require compound eyes which would each reach the size of their head.
Size: 5042px × 3361px
Photo credit: © Phil Degginger / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: acuity, clearwing, compound, dragonfly, erythemis, eye, eyes, field, green, image, insect, insects, mosaic, ommatidia, perception, photoreceptor, processing, resolution, simpliciollis, spatial, structure, units, view, visual, wide
