Butterflies & 314º vision

Butterfly eyes can distinguish ultraviolet and polarised light.

Butterfly eyes are unique and function differently compared to the human eye. Although butterflies may not have a human’s sharp eye, there vision beats ours in other ways. The different colours and patterns that butterflies can see are invisible to the human eye. This is because their eyes are better at picking up fast moving objects and they can distinguish ultraviolet and polarised light, which the human eye cannot.

Butterfly eyes are made up of many smaller image forming eyes called ommatidia. One of the main advantages of these eyes is that it provides the animal with increased wide field of vision. In fact, it is said that a butterfly can see approximately 314 degrees around itself. This helps them identify potential predators and food or water sources.