Nature is full of color. For flowers, displaying color is primarily a means to attract pollinators. Insects use their color vision not only to locate the right flowers to feed on but also to find mates. The evolutionary interaction between insects and plants has created complex dependencies that can have surprising outcomes.

Bees and other insects visit flowers to feed on nectar and pollen. In exchange for these goodies, they assist the reproduction of these plants by pollinating their flowers. That is the simple and slightly romantic view of pollination. The reality, however, is full of deception, chemical warfare and biomechanical trickery. ‘The combination of chemistry and physics with evolutionary biology has broadened our view of pollination,’ says Van der Kooi.

Anatomy

He is the first author of a review article on the evolution of colour vision in insects, which was published in the January 2021 volume of Annual Review of Entomology, and of a second review on the ‘arms race’ between plants and pollinators, which appeared on 25 January in Current Biology.

‘For many insect families, we know very little about how they see colours,’ says Van der Kooi. Bees have been studied in great detail but much less is known about colour vision in flies, even though many of their families, such as hoverflies, are very important pollinators. ‘They are difficult to study and to keep in the lab and the anatomy of their eyes is more complicated,’ explains Van der Kooi. ‘Furthermore, some long-standing ideas on fly vision have recently been overturned.’

Pigments

Van der Kooi and his co-authors tabulated which wavelengths can be seen by different insect species. ‘Basically, insect colour vision occurs at wavelengths between 300 and 700 nanometres. Most photoreceptors in insect eyes detect ultraviolet, blue and green light but there is great diversity.’ Insects evolved colour vision before the first flowers appeared. ‘The pigments in flowers appear to be fine-tuned to be visible to pollinators. But of course, insects have subsequently co-evolved.’

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