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Does the size of a creature, or the size of its eye, affect what can be seen by the "naked eye"? for example, can ants see things we consider microscopic? are ants microscopic to elephants? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 2 years ago by frankyboi to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Ants have rather poor vision compared to humans, but mostly a completely different vision:

Like most insects, ants have compound eyes made from numerous tiny lenses attached together. Ant eyes are good for acute movement detection, but do not offer a high resolution image. They also have three small ocelli (simple eyes) on the top of the head that detect light levels and polarization.[39] Compared to vertebrates, ants tend to have blurrier eyesight, particularly in smaller species,[40] and a few subterranean taxa are completely blind.[2] However, some ants, such as Australia's bulldog ant, have excellent vision and are capable of discriminating the distance and size of objects moving nearly a meter away.[41]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant#Head

Generally, larger eyes (in absolute terms, not relative to the individual's body size) are likely advantageous for high-resolution vision. A larger eye can have more photoreceptors, and a larger pupil can take in more photons. Both factors increase the amount of information available for the brain to construct a detailed image.

Optical vision encounters physical limits when the detail size of observed objects becomes smaller than the wavelength of light being used (see "diffraction limit" or "Rayleigh criterion").