Infrared detection in animals

Infrared detection in animals

Vision is defined by its access to the visible electromagnetic spectrum. Many animals, notably insects and birds, can see into the ultraviolet, although this comes with the concomitant dangers that these short wavelengths (10-400 nm) are high energy and potentially biologically destructive. At the opposite end of the visible spectrum are orange and red, and there has been considerable speculation whether any optical system could register infrared, drawing upon a suitably adapted opsin. The reason to be sceptical is that the radiation of these long wavelengths (750 nm-1 mm) is of low energy, and indeed to date there is no direct evidence for infrared vision. We can, of course, sense it as radiant heat, but several times animals have independently evolved systems of infrared detection that in a number of respects are closely analogous to the eye. In a variety of organisms, transducers process incoming infrared radiation into a sensory signal that is interpreted by the brain and in at least one case (the snakes) is integrated with visual information. Unsurprisingly, infrared detection is ultimately involved with heat sources, but these can vary from 'warm-blooded' prey (snakes, vampire bats and bed bugs) to forest fires (three independent examples in the beetles)

Infrared detection in vertebrates

Infrared detection in insects

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