DIORAMA FOR INSECTS


Butterflies use colour vision when searching for flowers. Unlike the trichromatic retinas of humans (blue, green and red cones; plus rods) and honeybees (ultraviolet, blue and green photoreceptors), butterfly retinas typically have six or more photoreceptor classes with distinct spectral sensitivities. 

In some butterflies, the spectral sensitivities of the light-sensing cells even differ between the sexes of one species, which is called “sexual dimorphism.” In the small white butterfly, Pieris rapae, only females have violet-sensitive cells, while males instead have double-peaked blue-sensing cells.

Color Vision: The ability to detect differences in the wavelengths making up light, rather than just the brightness of the light.

Light-Sensing Cell (Or “Photoreceptor”): A special type of nerve cell found in animal eyes that produces electrical signals when light shines on it.

Compound Eye: The kind of eye that most insects and crustaceans have. It consists of many units called ommatidia. Each ommatidium has a lens with a bundle of light-sensing cells underneath.

DIORAMA FOR INSECTS

DIORAMA FOR BIRDS

DIORAMA FOR BIRDS


Eyes are most important sense for birds. In fact, a bird can see more colors than a human can. As birds are tetrachromats, they see four colors: UV, blue, green, and red, whereas we are trichromats and can only see three colors: blue, green, red.


Birds can see fruits such as berries and those with waxy coatings more clearly than humans. Waxy coatings reflect UV light, making them stand out against leaves and plants in the bird’s eye view. Certain insects and flowers reflect UV light, which also aids birds in finding these nutritious food sources.

Birds have a number of adaptations which give visual acuity superior to that of other vertebrate groups; a pigeon has been described as "two eyes with wings".

DIORAMA FOR ANIMALS


The structure of an animal's eye is determined by the environment in which it lives, and the behavioural tasks it must fulfill to survive. Arthropods differ widely in the habitats in which they live, as well as their visual requirements for finding food or conspecifics, and avoiding predators. Consequently, an enormous variety of eye types are found in arthropods: they possess a wide variety of novel solutions to overcome visual problems or limitations. -from Wikipedia

Nocturnal insects have evolved remarkable visual capacities, despite small eyes and tiny brains. They can see colour, control flight and land, react to faint movements in their environment, navigate using dim celestial cues and find their way home after a long and tortuous foraging trip using learned visual landmarks. - from The remarkable visual capacities of nocturnal insects, by Eric J Warrant

THE DIORAMA PROJECT

A short historic introduction:

Early forms, so-called proto-dioramas, can be found in reli­gious art.
These take the form of small and larger sculp­tural presen­ta­tions behind glass,
which were intended to bring the secret of faith to life. As objects of popular
devo­tion, they became wide­spread in the seven­teenth and eigh­teenth
centuries.

But, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre and Charles-Marie Bouton are
consid­ered as the inven­tors of the diorama, as an optical-mechan­ical play­house.
Visitors could marvel at illuminated canvases with scenes of historical events, which were set in motion with light and stage techniques and accom­pa­nied by orches­tral music.