How does the lemon pansy see?
The lemon pansy (Junonia lemonias) is a insect in the order Lepidoptera. Its eyes belong to the vision type Butterfly multispectral.
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 one receptor class for colour, so it sees brightness but no hue.
- Its sharpest vision resolves 0.52 cycles per degree: the finest stripe pattern it can tell apart from grey.
- It stops seeing flicker at 203 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset, so fast motion looks about 3.4 times slower to it.[12][13]
- 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 1 receptor class: 510 nm (MWS (green)) receptor set of nearest measured relative Junonia coenia (same genus Junonia) | Estimated | [1][2] |
| Sharpness | Acuity 0.52 cycles per degree median of 20 relatives in family Nymphalidae: Caligo memnon, Caligo eurilochus, Asterocampa leilia, Morpho peleides, Parthenos sylvia, Polygonia c-album | Estimated | [3][4][5][6] |
| Angle between facets 0.98° median of 9 relatives in family Nymphalidae: Caligo memnon, Caligo eurilochus, Asterocampa leilia, Morpho peleides, Parthenos sylvia, Polygonia c-album | Estimated | [3] | |
| Eye type compound eye | |||
| Field of view | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Sharp zones (foveas) | Number of foveas 0 median of 91 relatives in class Insecta: Empis prodromus, Rhamphomyia albidiventris, Rhamphomyia breviventris, Rhamphomyia maculipennis, Rhamphomyia marginata, Rhamphomyia murina | Group default | [7] |
| Fovea type none | Group default | [7] | |
| Night vision | Activity pattern diurnal mode of 15 relatives in family Nymphalidae: Pararge aegeria, Polygonia c-album, Danaus plexippus, Heliconius melpomene, Melitaea cinxia, Aglais urticae | Estimated | [8][9][10] |
| Rods vs cones no rods (invertebrate photoreceptors) | Estimated | [8][9][10] | |
| Motion (flicker fusion) | Flicker fusion frequency 203 Hz median of 1 rows (no bright-light flag) (behavioural/whole-eye ERG rows; all rows: [203.0]) | Measured | [11] |
Related animals
- Asian swallowtail same vision type
- Coffee bee hawkmoth same vision type
- Common bluebottle butterfly same vision type
- Common eggfly same vision type
- Common evening brown same vision type
- Monarch butterfly same vision type
More insects: all insects with measured vision data.
Sources
- 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
- 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
- AndrewPMeade/FabricTools, sciphy/data_utils/datasets/Arthropod.CompoundEyes.csv (acuity, body length, light, media for 281 arthropods; columns match Feller et al. 2021 Arthropod Struct Dev 60:101002). github.com/AndrewPMeade/FabricTools
- Feller KD, Sharkey CR, McDuffee-Altekruse A, Bracken-Grissom HD, Lord NP, Porter ML, Schweikert LE 2021. Surf and turf vision: patterns and predictors of visual acuity in compound eye evolution. Arthropod Structure & Development 60:101002. doi.org/10.1016/j.asd.2020.101002
- Wright DS, Manel AN, Guachamin-Rosero M, Chamba-Vaca P, Bacquet CN, Merrill RM 2023. Quantifying visual acuity in Heliconius butterflies. Biology Letters. zenodo.org/records/10127023
- 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
- Sondhi Y, Ellis EA, Bybee SM, Theobald JC, Kawahara AY. 2021. Light environment drives evolution of color vision genes in butterflies and moths. Commun Biol 4:177
- 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?