Do Insects See Color?

How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!
~Isaac Watts, "Divine Songs"

White cars attract more insects than cars of other colors. Or so it seems to me (owner of a white car). Just today there was an assassin bug crawling across the inside roof of the car. This of course, forced us to pull over so my younger son and I could relax after my older son (an entomologist at heart, even if not in practice) rescued said bug and set him free.

I noted that there seemed to be far more bugs in and around this particular car than others we've had. Which started a discussion as to whether or not bugs see color. My older son, expert that he is said "Of course they do. The also see ultraviolet and infrared. And bees, for instance can see the colors of flowers."

"Ha!" said I, "You learn something new every day!" (Voilâ! Blog post for today!)

Not all insects can see all colors. It depends on what type of eye they have. Bees, it seems, have the best insect vision of all.

Note: Assassin bugs are very cool as bugs go.

Something else I learned: Insects are not more commonly drawn to white - cars or otherwise.