Python package for converting wavelength spectra of e.g. petals to trichromatic insect vision. Designed to be used as a colab notebook, to ease the process.
How do insects see the world? A recent review shows the magnitude of variation of visual perception across the phylum of insects (van der Kooi et al. 2021). Nonetheless, many of which have a set of 3 different wavelength receptors, covering a range of wavelengths from ~300 to ~700 nm (or in words, from UV to red). As there is no direct physical way of measuring this perception, a framework combining physiological exminations, wavelength measurements and mathematical transformations was set up during the 20th century (Wyszecki & Spines 1982, Chittka & Waser 1997). Thus, it is possible to compare different flowers by how they are perceived by an insect. This notebook implements the concept described by Chittka & Kevan (2005) (and basically shares its nomenclature) and enables the comparison of multiple species of flowers on how they are sensed by a trichromatic insect eye.
For any questions or help please contact thomas.huberevobio.eu
For anyone up to use R, we recommend and encourage the use of a great universe of spectral analyses tools in a much more comprehensive software than bumbleview: pavo (Maia, R., Gruson, H., Endler, J.A. and White, T.E., 2019. pavo 2: new tools for the spectral and spatial analysis of colour in R. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 10(7), pp.1097-1107.).