The Insect Eye: From Foundational Biology to Modern Applications in Pest Management

The ability of an animal to perceive its visual environment underpins many behaviors essential to survival, including navigation, foraging, predator avoidance, and recognition of conspecific individuals, making vision a critical element of both reproductive success and survival itself. In insects, eyes have evolved widely, shaped by different habitats and lifestyles, with striking examples such as the high-resolution diurnal vision of dragonflies, which enables rapid detection of prey and environmental features, in contrast with the highly sensitive nocturnal optical system of hawkmoths, which specializes in capturing even single photons. At the core of this diversity is a fundamental trade-off: at one extreme lies sensitivity, the ability to perceive visual stimuli, even under poor lighting conditions. At the other extreme, acuity, is the ability to resolve fine spatial details. This review seeks to synthesize current knowledge of insect visual systems, from their evolutionary origins to the developmental processes so far identified, from cellular organization to their role in behavior, to provide insights for designing novel, targeted, and sustainable vision-based technologies for the control of pest insects.