Re: Can ants see things at the cellular level?

Hi Manda

To see things at a "cellular" level requires a very powerful lens to magnify light in a manner that we can see cellular structures. As far as I am aware, no animals have "microscopic vision," in the sense of being able to see small structures with anything that looks like an eye. Why is this so? Well, for one, animals use vision for a number of "macroscopic" (things in the "large" world) purposes such as finding food, staying away from predators, and finding a mate. These things are probably more useful to an organism than being able to see into cells, thus evolutionary pressures led to the development of macroscopic vision.

In addition, ants have compound eyes, or eyes made up of many smaller eyes called omatidia. These eyes give the ant a view of light, dark and motion, but are not powerful enough to magnify objects as small as cells.

Hope this helps..

-L. Bry, MadSci Admin