Annotation

An account of what bees actually detect with their eyes. Bees detect some visual features such as edges and colours, but there is no sign that they reconstruct patterns or put together features to form objects. Bees detect motion but have no perception of what it is that moves, and certainly they do not recognize "things" by their shapes. Yet they clearly see well enough to fly and find food with a minute brain. Bee vision is therefore relevant to...

Dinosaurs, however toothy, did not rule the earth and neither do humans. But what were and are the true potentates of our planet? Insects, says Scott Richard Shaw - millions and millions of insect species. Starting in the shallow oceans of ancient Earth and ending in the far reaches of outer space - where, Shaw proposes, insect-like aliens may have achieved similar preeminence - Planet of the Bugs spins a sweeping account of insects' evolution from...