The insect that wore 3D glasses
Lots of animals judge distance with two eyes. For a long time, nobody knew whether any insect could. Here’s what Newcastle University’s scientists found.
Mantises have the first confirmed 3D (stereo) vision found in any animal without a backbone. Natural History Museum, London: Small orders collection (Mantodea) Newcastle University scientists say the praying mantis is the only insect known to have stereo vision. Newcastle University, 8 February 2018: New 3D vision discovered in praying mantis
An idea from the 1980s
Mantis 3D vision was first shown in the 1980s by Samuel Rossel. Newcastle University, 7 January 2016: Tiny glasses confirm 3D vision in insects
Tiny glasses, held on with beeswax
To test it, a team at Newcastle University made tiny 3D glasses for mantises and fixed them on with beeswax. Newcastle University, 7 January 2016: Tiny glasses confirm 3D vision in insects Red light is hard for mantises to see, so instead of red and blue lenses their glasses had one blue lens and one green. Newcastle University, 7 January 2016: Tiny glasses confirm 3D vision in insects
The insect cinema
In an ‘insect cinema’, the mantises ignored bugs shown in 2D but struck at bugs shown in 3D, floating in front of the screen. Newcastle University, 7 January 2016: Tiny glasses confirm 3D vision in insects
Not like our 3D
In 2018 the team found mantis 3D vision works differently from ours: it looks for places where the picture is changing, not at the details. Newcastle University, 8 February 2018: New 3D vision discovered in praying mantis
The scientists think it answers one question: is there prey at the right distance to catch? Newcastle University, 8 February 2018: New 3D vision discovered in praying mantis
Why it matters
Because insect brains are so tiny, this simpler kind of 3D vision could be useful for low-power robots. Newcastle University, 8 February 2018: New 3D vision discovered in praying mantis A Newcastle engineering student built an electronic mantis arm that copies the insect’s strike. Newcastle University, 8 February 2018: New 3D vision discovered in praying mantis
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