What Can the Butterflies See?

Color is a funny thing. We can be green with envy, feel the blues, or he can be a yellow-bellied coward. When we want to be classy, we put on a little black dress. When we’re angry, we’re red hot. Color makes life interesting—unlike the black and white sitcoms of the 60s, we’re in living color.

Humans essentially see three colors: red, blue and yellow. Every other color we see is a derivative or combination of those basic colors. Want purple? Mix red and blue. That tangy-sweet Florida orange is the timely marriage of red and yellow. That gorgeous clear jade bracelet? Blue and yellow dancing. Trichromats, we see these three colors because we’re hard-wired with three cones in our eyes. This isn’t bad, especially when you realize that most mammals are dichommats—meaning they only have two cones and can identify far less colors than humans.

But, there are some animals, like the yellow swallowtail butterfly with the ability to see five pigments and the seemingly lowly mantis shrimp with no less than sixteen visual pigments. Impressive.

This leads me to believe I am living in a world that is full of colors and thus objects—that I cannot see. I don’t possess the ability. And, neither do you. It’s outside of our possibility. This morning after leaving a breakfast with an old friend, I stepped outside. Michigan-a visual dream, is resplendent in the spring and fall. Colors abound: There are purple violets, yellow geraniums, bonnie-blue bells, pink-and0white lilies, bright green stalks of grass, and trees blossom with all the colors nature herself can muster.

Flitting outside the café, darting between a bed of tiny yellow and white geraniums and shoots of lavender growing in rich black soil, a black, white and yellow butterfly found its way. I watched it land on several different flowers, pause for a moment, wave its grand wings and fly off to rest its tiny feet on another brightly colored piece of foliage. I watched this butterfly, smaller than the palm of my hand, for about 5 minutes. I wondered what it saw.

Because I can’t see these colors, I’m having a hard time imagining what the butterfly saw that I didn’t. On a most basic level, I guess it’s easy to go with ultraviolet rays and light. (this is one of the things butterflies can see that people can’t. ) But, quite frankly, that’s just boring, What else can the butterflies see?

The kid in me wants the butterflies to see things like whole imaginary worlds full of imaginary people living side-by-side with us. Whole communities full of beings that go about their daily lives, laughing at us because we can’t see them. Or, perhaps they can’t see us either. Maybe they too are trichomats and we’re invisible to them. And, since there are sights I cannot see and sounds I cannot hear (think dog whistle), perhaps there are smells I cannot smell and feelings I cannot feel and tastes I cannot taste. Perhaps there are more than five senses that I just don’t know about. So, I don’t think it’s too far off to think there is an entire world happening simultaneously with my own. But I digress.

Or, perhaps, there is not another world. Perhaps the butterfly can see things like spirits or energy and auras. Perhaps they can see goodness and evil and love and hurt and shame and embarrassment and pride and sexiness and pain and fear. Perhaps those feelings are colors to the butterfly.

Or, perhaps, butterflies can see angels. That’d be nice. Maybe there are guardian angels just wandering around earth, protecting us from ourselves.

Maybe the butterfly can see the future. Maybe the butterfly can look at me and see my past. Maybe the butterfly can see my insecurities. Or, maybe I just look like a big brown lump. I don’t know.

The logical adult in me wants to shut the kid down. “That doesn’t make any sense,” logical me says in a very matter-of-fact tone. “You’d know if there were whole worlds you can’t see. Stop being ridiculous.” And, logical me usually wins and I go back to living in my tri-colored world, seeing my reds, yellows and blues which now seem ridiculously boring like blacks, whites and greys.