How does the blowfly (Calliphora vicina) see?

The blowfly (Calliphora vicina) is a insect in the order Diptera. Its eyes belong to the vision type Fast fly (slow-motion world): compound eye, very high CFF, panoramic field, low acuity.

Measured in this species: colour and sharpness. Measured colour or sharpness: a measured receptor set or acuity in this species; other dials come from relatives or group defaults. Every value below carries its evidence level and sources; nothing is typed by hand.

Sample scene drawn in code: a face with red lips, a green shirt, red and green apples, flowers and a colour strip, as a person sees it. — The sample scene as a person sees it.

The same sample scene rendered by the See Like Animals engine for the blowfly (Calliphora vicina)'s eyes, using the values in the table below. — The same scene rendered for the blowfly (Calliphora vicina) (60° field of view, daylight).

See your photo as the blowfly (Calliphora vicina)This species is in the free set of the tool. Your photo stays on your device.

What stands out

It has 5 colour receptor classes, including ultraviolet; people have 3.
Its sharpest vision resolves 0.45 cycles per degree: the finest stripe pattern it can tell apart from grey.
It stops seeing flicker at 240 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset, so fast motion looks about 4 times slower to it.^[7][8]
Activity pattern: diurnal.

The six dials

Evidence levels: how the tiers work. "Measured" means a value measured in this species; "Estimated" values come from a close relative or an eye-size formula.

Vision values for the blowfly (Calliphora vicina) (Calliphora vicina), catalogue-v1
Dial	Value	Evidence	Sources
Colour	Colour receptors 5 receptor classes: 335 nm (UVS), 357.5 nm (UVS), 460 nm (SWS (blue)), 490 nm (MWS (green)), 530 nm (MWS (green)) measured in this species	Measured	^[1]
Colour	Ultraviolet yes: at least one receptor peaks in the ultraviolet	Measured
Sharpness	Acuity 0.45 cycles per degree median of 1 optical rows (method priority rule); facet_diameter_um: male / drone rows set aside (labelled alternative: 37); interommatidial_angle_deg: male / drone rows set aside (labelled alternative: 1.07)	Measured	^[2]
	Angle between facets 1.1° minimum (acute-zone) interommatidial angle over sources; within caves2018: minimum (round-1 rule: mean of horizontal and vertical when both exist); interommatidial_angle_deg: male / drone rows set aside (labelled…	Measured	^[2]
	Eye type compound eye
Field of view	No value in the catalogue.
Sharp zones (foveas)	Number of foveas 0 median of 90 relatives in order Diptera: Empis prodromus, Rhamphomyia albidiventris, Rhamphomyia breviventris, Rhamphomyia maculipennis, Rhamphomyia marginata, Rhamphomyia murina	Group default	^[3]
Sharp zones (foveas)	Fovea type none	Group default	^[3]
Night vision	Activity pattern diurnal group default: mode of tier-A values in vision type V22 within phylum Arthropoda (4 species: Musca domestica, Drosophila melanogaster, Eristalis tenax, Periplaneta americana)	Group default	^[4][5]
Night vision	Rods vs cones no rods (invertebrate photoreceptors)	Group default	^[4][5]
Motion (flicker fusion)	Flicker fusion frequency 240 Hz median of 1 relatives in genus Calliphora: Calliphora collini	Estimated	^[6]

Comparisons

Blowfly vs fruit fly

Related animals

Fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) same vision type
Housefly same vision type
Tsetse fly (Glossina pallidipes) same vision type
Yellow fever mosquito same vision type
Blowfly (Calliphora collini) same vision type
Common green bottle fly same vision type

More insects: all insects with measured vision data.

Sources

van der Kooi CJ, Stavenga DG, Arikawa K, Belusic G, Kelber A. 2021. Evolution of insect color vision: from spectral sensitivity to visual ecology. Annu Rev Entomol 66:435-461. Supplementary table. doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ento-061720-071644
Caves EM, Brandley NC, Johnsen S (2018) Visual acuity and the evolution of signals. Trends Ecol Evol 33:358-372. Supplementary Tables S1-S3.. doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2018.03.001
Comparative data for dance fly eye morphology and female ornamentation (Empididae). Data: Dryad doi:10.5061/dryad.rr4xgxd5z. doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rr4xgxd5z
Feuda R, Marletaz F, Bentley MA, Holland PWH. 2016. Conservation, duplication, and divergence of five opsin genes in insect evolution. Genome Biol Evol 8:579-587
Longcore T. 2023. A compendium of photopigment peak sensitivities and visual spectral response curves of terrestrial wildlife to guide design of outdoor nighttime lighting. Basic Appl Ecol 73:40-50. doi:10.1016/j.baae.2023.09.002. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8432720
Haarlem CS, Hynes C, Jackson AL, Mitchell KJ, O'Connell RG, Healy K. 2026. Pace of ecology drives the tempo of visual perception across the animal kingdom. Nature Ecology & Evolution (doi:10.1038/s41559-026-02994-7). Figshare dataset 10.6084/m9.figshare.30556475. doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30556475
Healy K, McNally L, Ruxton GD, Cooper N, Jackson AL. 2013. Metabolic rate and body size are linked with perception of temporal information. Animal Behaviour 86:685-696. Table 1. doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.06.018
Inger R, Bennie J, Davies TW, Gaston KJ. 2014. Potential biological and ecological effects of flickering artificial light. PLoS ONE 9(5): e98631. Table 3. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098631

Every value cites its sources (all sources). Data: catalogue-v1, built 2026-09-29. Accuracy notes: how accurate is this?