- Dragonflies have compound eyes, which consist of a number of smaller visual units. While houseflies have 6000 compound eyes, dragonflies have up to 30,000. These units present the dragonfly with one picture, not 30,000 little ones.
- The dragonfly eyes wrap almost all around its head, allowing it to see in all directions at once. With this 360 degree vision, it can see without moving its head. This includes behind it as well as underneath it.
- The colors humans see are detected by 3 color photoreceptors: red, blue, and green. Most species of dragonflies have many more color photoreceptors, up to 30 in fact. This means they are able to see colors humans cannot even imagine.
- Dragonflies can also see through a polarizing filter, much like when humans wear polarized sunglasses. This ability allows them to view prey that may be hiding underwater even if sunlight is hitting the water.
- Due to their incredible eyesight, dragonflies experience time differently than humans. Insects like flies and mosquitoes actually move very slowly for dragonflies. They can track a flying object and decide whether it is prey or not in less than 5 hundredths of a second.
- As well as being able to see more colors than humans, dragonflies are able to see ultraviolet light. These rays of light from the sun are invisible to humans, however the dragonfly’s ability to see them helps it hunt its prey.