Other predatory insects, like dragonflies and robber flies, have large, high-resolution eyes with distinctive acute zones. As they pursue their targets, they turn their heads to keep the prey within the sharpest part of their visual field. Killer flies “have to pay attention in all directions,” Gonzalez-Bellido says, so they don’t have an acute zone, and their visual resolution isn’t especially high. Despite that, they seem to have a more demanding hunting strategy. Dragonflies hunt against the sky, spotting the silhouettes of prey that fly above them. But killer flies somehow “do the
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