Saturday, September 22, 2012

2 Things Challenge: Eyes/Many

The 2 Things Challenge for this week is Eyes/Many.

Spiders tend to have multiple sets of eyes (which I would consider many if it's more than one set), with each set having different functions.  They are not multiple facets on a single eye, like the house fly, but may have devolved from many faceted eyes.  The many eyes can be difficult to see, but they are there in the images below (maybe a click on the image will give you a little larger view).
This little fellow (I have no idea of any of their sex) has at least three sets that I can see.


I believe I can see at least two sets (maybe parts of three) in the above image, especially if I crop in close like the part below.

Most spiders have four sets, regardless of whether I can see them, but the Grand-daddy Long Legs above appears to only have one set of two.

The jumping spider has vision that is ten times as acute as the dragonfly, which has the best vision of the insect world, but I couldn't find one to photograph, plus the ones around here tend to be so hyper-active I don't believe I could get a decent photo without first killing the thing.


And finally, this guy's coloration is so black around the eyes I can't tell how many there are, but I've never seen a spider that looked anything at all like this before so I just had to put it in too.

3 comments:

Mouse said...

Wonderful photos. I regret being afraid of insects as a kid, they're fascinating!

Vivian aka Deborah said...

Wow, Larry....great photos here of all the spider eyes. You learned me something today.....as i never knew that about spider's eyes. ~.~

ShEiLa said...

Wowza!!!! I have been missing some awesome entries... darn-it! I will get back in the game soon... I hope.

ToOdLeS.