How does the common owl-moth see?
The common owl-moth (Eupatula macrops) is a insect in the order not recorded. Its eyes belong to the vision type .
Measured in this species: motion (flicker fusion). One measured dial: a value other than colour or sharpness is measured in this species; colour and sharpness are not measured here. Every value below carries its evidence level and sources; nothing is typed by hand.
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What stands out
- It has three colour receptor classes, like most people, but one of them sees ultraviolet.
- It stops seeing flicker at 106.5 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset, so fast motion looks about 1.8 times slower to it.[15][16]
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.
| Dial | Value | Evidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colour | Colour receptors 3 receptor classes: 356.5 nm (UVS), 445 nm (SWS (blue)), 530 nm (MWS (green)) GROUP TEMPLATE (tier C, no measured relative in genus, family, order or class): median receptor set of 90 measured species in group Insecta (tidy-table major group) (3 classes): Adoxophyes orana, Aeshna cyanea, Aglais… | Group default | [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] |
| Ultraviolet yes: at least one receptor peaks in the ultraviolet | Group default | ||
| Sharpness | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Field of view | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Sharp zones (foveas) | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Night vision | Rods vs cones no rods (invertebrate photoreceptors) | Group default | |
| Motion (flicker fusion) | Flicker fusion frequency 106.5 Hz median of 1 bright-light rows (behavioural/whole-eye ERG rows; all rows: [106.5]) | Measured | [14] |
Related animals
- Tuatara same vision type
- Commander same vision type
- Domestic chicken same vision type
- Horseshoe crab same vision type
- Australian lungfish same vision type
- Brine shrimp same vision type
More insects: all insects with measured vision data.
Sources
- Pirih P et al. 2022. Simple and complex, sexually dimorphic retinal mosaic of fritillary butterflies. Phil Trans R Soc B. Data: Dryad doi:10.5061/dryad.gmsbcc2p2. doi.org/10.5061/dryad.gmsbcc2p2
- Stöckl A, Kelber A 2019. Fuelling on the wing: sensory ecology of hawkmoth foraging. Journal of Comparative Physiology A. doi.org/10.1007/s00359-019-01328-2
- Kelber A, Vorobyev M, Osorio D. 2003. Animal colour vision - behavioural tests and physiological concepts. Biol Rev 78:81-118. doi.org/10.1017/S1464793102005985
- 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
- Lord NP, Plimpton RL, Sharkey CR, et al. 2016. A cure for the blues: opsin duplication and subfunctionalization for short-wavelength sensitivity in jewel beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae). BMC Evol Biol 16:107
- Kirwan J. luxR 0.1.1: Underwater Light Analysis and Visual Ecology (R-universe), data species_sensitivities. github.com/JohnKirwan/luxR
- Qian R, Theobald J, Frank T 2025. Praying mantises possess multiple spectral photoreceptor classes. Journal of Comparative Physiology A. doi.org/10.1007/s00359-025-01776-z
- Belušič G, Ilić M, Meglič A et al. 2021. Red-green opponency in the long visual fibre photoreceptors of brushfoot butterflies (Nymphalidae). Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.1560
- Pirih P, Ilić M, Meglič A et al. 2022. Opponent processing in the retinal mosaic of nymphalid butterflies. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0275
- Pirih P et al. 2022. Opponent processing in the retinal mosaic of nymphalid butterflies. Phil Trans R Soc B. Data: Dryad doi:10.5061/dryad.9cnp5hqkq. doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9cnp5hqkq
- Porter ML et al. 2006 Table 1 (opsin accessions with lambda max; mostly cephalopod/arthropod) as extracted by VPOD. github.com/VisualPhysiologyDB/visual-physiology-opsin-db
- 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
- VPOD in-vivo (MSP / single-cell) lambda max compendium, file scp_cleaned.csv, VPOD GitHub (Frazer et al. 2025 bioRxiv 10.1101/2025.08.22.671864). github.com/VisualPhysiologyDB/visual-physiology-opsin-db/tree/main/scripts_n_notebooks/vpod_ML_workflows/mine_n_match/data_sources/lmax/vpod
- Lafitte A, Sordello R, Legrand M, Nicolas V, Obein G, Reyjol Y. 2022. A flashing light may not be that flashy: A systematic review on critical fusion frequencies. PLoS ONE 17(12): e0279718. S10 File (CFF database). doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279718
- 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?