Department of Energy Argonne National Laboratory Office of Science NEWTON's Homepage NEWTON's Homepage
NEWTON, Ask A Scientist!
NEWTON Home Page NEWTON Teachers Visit Our Archives Ask A Question How To Ask A Question Question of the Week Our Expert Scientists Volunteer at NEWTON! Frequently Asked Questions Referencing NEWTON About NEWTON About Ask A Scientist Education At Argonne Insects and Color Vision 
Name: M. B.
Status: educator
Age: 40s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: Friday, April 26, 2002
Question:
My mother is a teachers aide and would like to know what sort of experiments were used to determine that butterflies (or other insects) have colour vision?

Replies:
The only experiment that I recall about insects and color focused around color preference studies. These were done years ago and I beleive they were partial conclusive. Butterflies were introduced to flowers of many colors and flowers with green petals. Each offered nectar.

The confirmation of color vision came with the visual and biochemical analysis of the eyes. They have the cone color receptors found in most organisms that see color.

A possible good site:

http://papilio.sci.yokohama-cu.ac.jp/reprints/97-1.pdf

Steve Sample

Click here to return to the Zoology Archives

NEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators, sponsored and operated by Argonne National Laboratory's Educational Programs, Andrew Skipor, Ph.D., Head of Educational Programs.

For assistance with NEWTON contact a System Operator (help@newton.dep.anl.gov), or at Argonne's Educational Programs

NEWTON AND ASK A SCIENTIST
Educational Programs
Building 360
9700 S. Cass Ave.
Argonne, Illinois
60439-4845, USA
Update: June 2012
Weclome To Newton

Argonne National Laboratory