How does the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) see?
The fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) is a insect in the order Diptera. Its eyes belong to the vision type Fast fly (slow-motion world): compound eye, very high CFF, panoramic field, low acuity.
Measured in this species: colour, sharpness, night vision and motion (flicker fusion). Measured core: measured values on at least 3 of the 6 dials. Every value below carries its evidence level and sources; nothing is typed by hand.
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What stands out
- It has 7 colour receptor classes, including ultraviolet; people have 3.
- Its sharpest vision resolves 0.125 cycles per degree: the finest stripe pattern it can tell apart from grey.
- It stops seeing flicker at 57 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset, so fast motion looks about the same.[10][11]
- Activity pattern: diurnal.
The six dials
Evidence levels: how the tiers work. "Measured" means a value measured in this species; "Estimated" values come from a close relative or an eye-size formula.
| Dial | Value | Evidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colour | Colour receptors 7 receptor classes: 331 nm (UVS), 345 nm (UVS), 371.5 nm (UVS), 440 nm (SWS (blue)), 480 nm (MWS (green)), 508 nm (MWS (green)), 520 nm (MWS (green)) measured in this species | Measured (not re-verified) | [1][2][3][4][5] |
| Ultraviolet yes: at least one receptor peaks in the ultraviolet | Measured (not re-verified) | ||
| Sharpness | Acuity 0.125 cycles per degree median of 2 optical rows (method priority rule) | Measured | [6] |
| Angle between facets 3.38° minimum (acute-zone) interommatidial angle over sources; within caves2018: minimum (round-1 rule: mean of horizontal and vertical when both exist) | Measured | [6] | |
| Eye type compound eye | |||
| Field of view | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Sharp zones (foveas) | Number of foveas 0 median of 90 relatives in order Diptera: Empis prodromus, Rhamphomyia albidiventris, Rhamphomyia breviventris, Rhamphomyia maculipennis, Rhamphomyia marginata, Rhamphomyia murina | Group default | [7] |
| Fovea type none | Group default | [7] | |
| Night vision | Activity pattern diurnal tie ['diurnal', 'nocturnal'] broken by species-level studies (round-3 tie-break rule 2) (of 2 rows): diurnal; nocturnal | Measured | [8][2] |
| Rods vs cones no rods (invertebrate photoreceptors) nocturnal -> rod-dominated; crepuscular / cathemeral / mixed -> mixed; diurnal -> cone-dominated | Derived | [8][2] | |
| Motion (flicker fusion) | Flicker fusion frequency 57 Hz median of 1 rows (no bright-light flag) (behavioural/whole-eye ERG rows; all rows: [57.0]) | Measured | [9] |
Comparisons
Related animals
- Housefly same vision type
- Blowfly (Calliphora vicina) same vision type
- Tsetse fly (Glossina pallidipes) same vision type
- Yellow fever mosquito same vision type
- Blowfly (Calliphora collini) same vision type
- Common green bottle fly same vision type
More insects: all insects with measured vision data.
Sources
- VPOD in-vivo (MSP / single-cell) lambda max compendium, file scp_cleaned.csv, VPOD GitHub (Frazer et al. 2025 bioRxiv 10.1101/2025.08.22.671864). github.com/VisualPhysiologyDB/visual-physiology-opsin-db/tree/main/scripts_n_notebooks/vpod_ML_workflows/mine_n_match/data_sources/lmax/vpod
- Longcore T. 2023. A compendium of photopigment peak sensitivities and visual spectral response curves of terrestrial wildlife to guide design of outdoor nighttime lighting. Basic Appl Ecol 73:40-50. doi:10.1016/j.baae.2023.09.002. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8432720
- van der Kooi CJ, Stavenga DG, Arikawa K, Belusic G, Kelber A. 2021. Evolution of insect color vision: from spectral sensitivity to visual ecology. Annu Rev Entomol 66:435-461. Supplementary table. doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ento-061720-071644
- Kirwan J. luxR 0.1.1: Underwater Light Analysis and Visual Ecology (R-universe), data species_sensitivities. github.com/JohnKirwan/luxR
- Porter ML et al. 2006 Table 1 (opsin accessions with lambda max; mostly cephalopod/arthropod) as extracted by VPOD. github.com/VisualPhysiologyDB/visual-physiology-opsin-db
- Caves EM, Brandley NC, Johnsen S (2018) Visual acuity and the evolution of signals. Trends Ecol Evol 33:358-372. Supplementary Tables S1-S3.. doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2018.03.001
- Comparative data for dance fly eye morphology and female ornamentation (Empididae). Data: Dryad doi:10.5061/dryad.rr4xgxd5z. doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rr4xgxd5z
- Feuda R, Marletaz F, Bentley MA, Holland PWH. 2016. Conservation, duplication, and divergence of five opsin genes in insect evolution. Genome Biol Evol 8:579-587
- Lafitte A, Sordello R, Legrand M, Nicolas V, Obein G, Reyjol Y. 2022. A flashing light may not be that flashy: A systematic review on critical fusion frequencies. PLoS ONE 17(12): e0279718. S10 File (CFF database). doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279718
- Healy K, McNally L, Ruxton GD, Cooper N, Jackson AL. 2013. Metabolic rate and body size are linked with perception of temporal information. Animal Behaviour 86:685-696. Table 1. doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.06.018
- Inger R, Bennie J, Davies TW, Gaston KJ. 2014. Potential biological and ecological effects of flickering artificial light. PLoS ONE 9(5): e98631. Table 3. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098631
Every value cites its sources (all sources). Data: catalogue-v1, built 2026-09-29. Accuracy notes: how accurate is this?