Blue may be a rare eye color for cicadas, but here we see a wonderful insect called Blue-eyed Ensign Wasp, and so of course now I am wondering if there are others, as exceptions or always blue-eyed insects.
I see bees with pale eyes but I think of those like white milk glass, not blue. I also see Soldier Flies with gorgeous, metallic eyes but the ones I have seen have been more jade greenish in color, not blue.
The only insects with blue eyes I have personally seen are the Blue-Eyed Ensign Wasps. Have you seen any?
I never think of those bee eyes as blue! Are they considered blue? If so then all of my Nannotrigona perilampoides obs would be blue and lots of others, I guess? But they just look milky to me.
Dark green I see a lot here, especially as a metallic, lighter green on butterflies/caterpillars who use color as a cloak.
iām sure there are lots of insects with blue eyes, but first thing that comes to my mind are some long-legged flies, which can appear blue all over depending on angle sometimes. ex: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/461393-Condylostylus-mundus.
The blue Condylostylus I have seen are all a species zdanko was working on called Condylostylus purpureus (but they just come up as Condylostylus due to conflicting IDs). They have those rainbow metallic fly eyes, which are ridiculously cool, but sort of red-green and not blue like that one. Thank you for showing it to me!
I think part of the problem is that I donāt have a science background so I just draw on my life to try to make sense of things rather than any formal knowledge, and my life has been spent outdoors but largely justā¦ being.
Thus those white eyes remind me of white beach glass, and when I think blue eyes on insects, I am at a minimum thinking of light blue beach glass (like the Ensign wasp) and treasure is the dark blue beach glass (like this fly you just shared, again thank you).
For blue and partly blue organisms in general, check out the project Blue! ( https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/blue ). In the first two pages of photos right now, it has 2 bluets (damselflies) and an impressive long-legged fly with blue eyes.
Join the project and add blue or partly blue organisms!
