this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
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Cutie pies, sans vertebrae.
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The freaky thing is those black spots are probably the only bits of their eyes that they don't see out of.
Really? The dots certainly seemed to be following me around as I moved around her. Although that could be the case whether she was seeing through them or not I suppose.
The dots aren't following you around :) They're called pseudopupils. You're seeing down the "tubes" (ommatidia) of the composite eyes (heavy oversimplification because I'm no scientist).
A smarter person explains this here: https://www.readingeagle.com/2015/09/16/outside-some-insects-look-like-theyre-looking-at-you-but-are-they
Yeah that's a better explanation than mine lol. I was thinking their were analogous to human blind spots - there's a spot in both eyes where the nerves are and there are no sensors there. Our brains filter that out, but if you get a sheet of paper marked in the right places and hold it at just the right distance, you can see the markings disappear once you put them in your blind spot. The Wiki page for it actually has a version you can do on your device.
In fact, the pseudopupil is a different type of eye altogether, according to your link, it's essentially just a light sensor and isn't thought to provide an actual image.