The Dragonfly
Although we all have a pretty bad
impression when it comes to the
term “fly”, this one is actually very
beautiful unlike its other sisters and
brothers from the fly family. If you
have seen this dragonfly chances
are you already guessed that they
have amazing eyesight, with those
huge globular eyes colored in just
the perfect shade of turquoise,
the dragonfly has one of the most
colored visions out there in the world.
Studying different dragonflies and
at different ages showed they have
different types of cones ranging
from 11 to 30 and this huge range
difference is affected by their lives
as larvae where they are exposed
to certain colors and not exposed
to others causing a huge increase
in
their
opsonins —the
proteins
responsible
for activating the cones— and
so the dragonfly ended being
that very beautiful, very different
and very well-sighted member
in the unpleasant family of flies.
The Bluebottle Butterfly
And as always, just putting this
beautiful blue cherry on top, the
blueb ottle butterfly also known as
the “blue triangle” and previously as
“Graphium Sarpedon”, is a beautiful
black butterfly with just the perfect
hint of blue in her wings, making it
a very beautiful sight, and although
we see it as part of the beautiful
colored world out there, how it sees
the world is actually a million times
more beautiful and more colorful.
Scientists have recently discovered
that the blue triangle butterfly has
exactly 15 different photoreceptors
18
in its eyes and unlike the mantis
shrimp, this one doesn’t miss
out on their full advantages, just
imagine the number 15 with a
huge palette in front of your eyes,
which is literally impossible to
imagine with all the colors on it
that we have never seen before.
We all knew that we were
missing out on the infrareds and
the ultraviolets and despite the
tools out there that enable us from
actually seeing those, we never
really had the chance to see how
it will feel or look if you mix those
waves with our normal white light
spectrum, but this butterfly has.
It has one cone that’s stimulated
by normal violet, one stimulated
by ultraviolet, three different
types of cones are specific for
different shades of blue, another
one especially for a bluish green
color, it also has four cones just
for the green and another five for
the red lights, and that will be an
exact 15 opening up the doors
to a million new possibilities
and a million new rainbows.
The Recap Magazine
July 2018 Issue
19