eli5 How do we “know” how a fly sees things?

Question

I went to an exhibit in the Tulsa Zoo that had a little area that supposedly shows how a common house fly sees the world, in a hexagonal pattern. How do we know that is how they see?

In: 1

Answer 1

I’m not a fly vision expert, but I can relate this experience:

When flies are “grooming” their eyes, they aren’t paying as much attention to their surroundings, and they’re much easier to smack with a flyswatter.