Tiny glasses confirm 3D vision in insects

Most knowledge about 3D vision has come from vertebrates, however, a Newcastle University team have confirmed that the praying mantis, an invertebrate, does indeed use stereopsis or 3D perception for hunting. In a specially-designed insect cinema, they have shown that it needs to be ’old school’ 3D glasses for tests to work on mantises. While in humans that would be with red and blue lenses, red light is poorly visible to mantises so they have custom-made glasses with one blue and one green lens. Read the