How does the fruit fly (Drosophila hydei) see?
The fruit fly (Drosophila hydei) is a insect in the order Diptera. Its eyes belong to the vision type Fast fly (slow-motion world).
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 7 colour receptor classes, including ultraviolet; people have 3.
- Its sharpest vision resolves 0.127 cycles per degree: the finest stripe pattern it can tell apart from grey.
- It stops seeing flicker at 80 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset, so fast motion looks about 1.3 times slower to it.[11][10]
- 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.
| Dial | Value | Evidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colour | Colour receptors 7 receptor classes: 331 nm (UVS), 345 nm (UVS), 371.5 nm (UVS), 440 nm (SWS (blue)), 480 nm (MWS (green)), 508 nm (MWS (green)), 520 nm (MWS (green)) receptor set of nearest measured relative Drosophila melanogaster (same genus Drosophila) | Estimated | [1][2][3][4][5] |
| Ultraviolet yes: at least one receptor peaks in the ultraviolet | Estimated | ||
| Sharpness | Acuity 0.127 cycles per degree median of 2 relatives in genus Drosophila: Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila mauritiana | Estimated | [6][7] |
| Angle between facets 3.625° median of 2 relatives in genus Drosophila: Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila mauritiana | Estimated | [6][7] | |
| Eye type compound eye | |||
| Field of view | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Sharp zones (foveas) | Number of foveas 0 median of 91 relatives in order Diptera: Empis prodromus, Rhamphomyia albidiventris, Rhamphomyia breviventris, Rhamphomyia maculipennis, Rhamphomyia marginata, Rhamphomyia murina | Group default | [8] |
| Fovea type none | Group default | [8] | |
| Night vision | Activity pattern diurnal mode of 2 relatives in genus Drosophila: Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila mojavensis | Estimated | [9][2] |
| Rods vs cones no rods (invertebrate photoreceptors) | Estimated | [9][2] | |
| Motion (flicker fusion) | Flicker fusion frequency 80 Hz median of 1 bright-light rows (behavioural/whole-eye ERG rows; all rows: [80.0]); cff_hz: dim-light rows (bright-light rows used) set aside (labelled alternative: 81.9) | Measured | [10] |
Related animals
- Fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) same vision type
- Housefly same vision type
- Blowfly (Calliphora vicina) same vision type
- Tsetse fly (Glossina pallidipes) same vision type
- Yellow fever mosquito same vision type
- Blowfly (Calliphora collini) same vision type
More insects: all insects with measured vision data.
Sources
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Kirwan J. luxR 0.1.1: Underwater Light Analysis and Visual Ecology (R-universe), data species_sensitivities. github.com/JohnKirwan/luxR
- 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
- 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
- Currea JP, Sondhi Y, Kawahara AY, Theobald J. 2023. Measuring compound eye optics with microscope and microCT images. Commun Biol 6:246
- 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
- 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
- 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
Every value cites its sources (all sources). Data: catalogue-v1, built 2026-09-29. Accuracy notes: how accurate is this?