Those flies whose larvæ are parasitic on other animals have eyes of a uniform color that they may readily detect the most suitable host for their young; such are the Bombyliidæ, Conopidæ, Pipunculidæ, and Tachinidæ.
Certain flies which live in the clear sunlight, as many Dolichopidæ, some Bombyliidæ, and certain Tabanidæ (Tabanus, Chrysops, Hæmatopota), and which are often easily caught with the hand, have eyes spotted or banded with bright or metallic colors. This is also a sexual trait, as the males of some horse-flies visiting flowers have eyes of a single color, the spots and bands surviving only on the lower and hinder parts of the eye, while their voracious blood-sucking females have the entire eye spotted or banded (Kolbe).
The color-sense of insects.—Insects, as Spengel first suggested, appear to be able to distinguish the color of objects. Lubbock has experimentally proved that bees, wasps, and ants have this power, blue being the favorite color of the honey-bee, and violet of ants, which are sensitive to ultra-violet rays.
It is well known that butterflies will descend from a position high in the air, mistaking white bits of paper for white flowers; while, as we have observed, white butterflies (Pieris) prefer white flowers, and yellow butterflies (Colias) appear to alight on yellow flowers in preference to white ones.
The late Mr. S. L. Elliott once informed us that on a red barn with white trimmings he observed that white moths (Spilosoma, Hyphantria, and Acronycta oblinita) rested on the white parts, while on the darker, reddish portions sat Catocalæ and other dark or reddish moths. Gross observed that house-flies would frequent a bluish green ring on the ceiling of his chamber; but if it were covered by white paper, the flies would leave the spot, though they would return as soon as the paper ring was removed (Kolbe). We have observed that house-flies prefer green paper to the yellowish wall of a kitchen, but were not attracted to sheets of a Prussian blue paper, attached to the same wall and ceiling.
It is generally supposed that the shape and high colors of flowers attract insects; but Plateau has made a number of ingenious experiments which tend to disprove this view. He used in his investigations the dahlia, with its central head of flowerets, which contrast so strongly with the corolla. He finds (1) that insects frequent flowers which have not undergone any mutilation, but whose form and colors are hidden by green leaves. (2) Neither the shape nor lively colors of the central head (capitulum) seem to attract them. (3) The gayly colored peripheral flowerets of simple dahlias and, consequently, of the heads of other composite flowers, do not play the rôle of signals, such as has been attributed to them. (4) The insects are evidently guided by another sense than that of sight, and this sense is probably that of smell.
LITERATURE ON THE EYES AND VISION
a. General
Serres, Marcel de. Mémoires sur les yeux composés et les yeux lisses des insectes. Montpellier, 1813.
Müller, Johannes. Zur vergleichenden Physiologie des Gesichtssinnes der Menschen und der Tiere. 8 Taf. Leipzig, 1826.