Most insects don’t have pupils. So how do they see if it’s too bright or too dark outside?

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Are they just rendered blind for the majority of the day and night and have other senses make up for it? Do their compound eyes have a different light filtration mechanism? I tried googling and only found really complex and long research papers.

In: Biology

Anonymous 0 Comments

There are actually different kinds of compound eyes, so there isn’t a catch all answer. Some limit the amount of light that reaches the photo receptors with special lenses, or have pigment layers that absorb light like the human iris, so they in a sense *do* have pupils. Or, well… “pupils”, but the pigment moves to constrict the entrance of light photons. At any rate, like us, there are mechanisms that can react to reduce or limit excessive amounts of light from reaching their retina. Can’t tell you how effectively they can.