What is the Compound Eye Function?

Structure

• Compound eyes consist of hundreds or thousands of structures called ommatidia. Each includes a lens, crystalline cone and light-sensitive visual cells, as well as pigment cells that separate the ommatidia, which together provide an arthropod with vision, including the ability to see in color and ultraviolet.

Resolution

• Because each ommatidia functions separately, compound eyes produce images that are a mosaic composed of many dots. The more ommatidia that are present, the more detailed the image.

Motion

• Compound eyes are much better at detecting moving objects than still objects. As an object moves across a compound eye's field of vision, the ommatidia are turned off or on, producing a flicker effect.

Color Vision

• Some compound eyes have ommatidia that contain two or more pigments. Species with that kind of compound eye have some color vision. Bees, for example, can see every color but red.

Ultraviolet Vision

• Some compound eyes have pigments that can detect ultraviolet light as well. Monarch butterflies use ultraviolet to migrate more than 2,000 miles.