How does the tsetse fly (Glossina morsitans) see?
The tsetse fly (Glossina morsitans) 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 three colour receptor classes, like most people, but one of them sees ultraviolet.
- Its sharpest vision resolves 0.63 cycles per degree: the finest stripe pattern it can tell apart from grey.
- It stops seeing flicker at 217.5 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset, so fast motion looks about 3.6 times slower to it.[14][12]
- 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 3 receptor classes: 347.5 nm (UVS), 455 nm (SWS (blue)), 523 nm (MWS (green)) ESTIMATE: receptor classes from opsin-gene presence in this species; lambda max per class from the measured class template of the nearest taxon (never from the gene itself) | Group default | [1][2][3][4] |
| Ultraviolet yes: at least one receptor peaks in the ultraviolet | Group default | ||
| Sharpness | Acuity 0.63 cycles per degree median of 1 relatives in genus Glossina: Glossina pallidipes | Estimated | [5] |
| Angle between facets 4.05° median of 50 relatives in order Diptera: Syritta pipiens, Tripteroides bambusa, Eristalis tenax, Calliphora vicina, Chrysomya megacephala, Bibio marci | Group default | [6][7][8][9] | |
| 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 | [10] |
| Fovea type none | Group default | [10] | |
| Night vision | Activity pattern diurnal group default: mode of tier-A values in vision type V22 within phylum Arthropoda (7 species: Musca domestica, Drosophila melanogaster, Eristalis tenax, Periplaneta americana, Anopheles gambiae, Culex quinquefasciatus) | Group default | [11][2] |
| Rods vs cones no rods (invertebrate photoreceptors) | Group default | [11][2] | |
| Motion (flicker fusion) | Flicker fusion frequency 217.5 Hz median of 2 bright-light rows (behavioural/whole-eye ERG rows; all rows: [145.0, 290.0]) | Measured | [12][13] |
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
- Guignard Q, Allison JD, Slippers B. 2022. The evolution of insect visual opsin genes with specific consideration of the influence of ocelli and life history traits. BMC Ecol Evol 22:2
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Heras F, Laughlin S 2026. Investments in photoreceptors compete with investments in optics to determine eye design. eLife. doi.org/10.7554/eLife.96517
- Host-trailing satellite flight behaviour is associated with greater investment in peripheral visual sensory system in miltogrammine flies. Scientific Reports 12 (2022) (PMC8854417), Table 1.. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-06704-3
- 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
- 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
Every value cites its sources (all sources). Data: catalogue-v1, built 2026-09-29. Accuracy notes: how accurate is this?