# Land creature with no eyes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 17, 2013, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-creature-with-no-eyes/663795 "2013-07-17T22:30:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-creature-with-no-eyes/663795/1 "2013-07-17T22:30:05Z")
Celting asked me if there is any creature which lives _above the ground_ but has no eyes. I can’t think of any. Can you? 😕 We are specifically not counting cave creatures. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-creature-with-no-eyes/663795/2 "2013-07-17T22:37:21Z")
Many species of [springtail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springtail)are blind - and I believe some of those species are found above ground. ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-creature-with-no-eyes/663795/3 "2013-07-17T22:39:52Z")
Define creature. I assume you mean multi-cellular animals. Do flatworms or annelids count? How about Tardigrades, they don’t seem to have eyes and at least some of them live above ground. Also, define eye. Do you require it to be able to form an image, or do simple light-sending eyespot count? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-creature-with-no-eyes/663795/4 "2013-07-17T23:48:51Z")
Also, define above-ground. 😃 F’rinstance, what about a tapeworm? It’s existence is certainly above the ground, but it never sees the light of day. ---
**Author:** ![notsoheavyd3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85e7bf/32.png) [@notsoheavyd3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notsoheavyd3)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-creature-with-no-eyes/663795/5 "2013-07-17T23:52:20Z")
Does this guy count? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centipedes#Geophilomorpha](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centipedes#Geophilomorpha) ---
**Author:** ![notsoheavyd3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85e7bf/32.png) [@notsoheavyd3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notsoheavyd3)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-creature-with-no-eyes/663795/6 "2013-07-17T23:53:37Z")
Or this? [http://australianmuseum.net.au/Blind-Scolopendrid-Centipede](http://australianmuseum.net.au/Blind-Scolopendrid-Centipede) ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2013, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-creature-with-no-eyes/663795/7 "2013-07-18T01:03:03Z")
Yep, centipedes and springtails count. The opinion of our distinguished judge is that “Tapeworms are sorta cheating because they live in a sort of cave, it’s just a squishy one.”😃 Thanks very much to all who answered! ---
**Author:** ![Earthman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9dc877/32.png) [@Earthman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthman)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-creature-with-no-eyes/663795/8 "2013-07-19T13:26:05Z")
There are also the [golden moles](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_mole) of southern Africa. They burrow during the day but hunt on the surface at night. [YouTube link to a BBC video segment featuring one species (1:51)](http://youtu.be/IXqgQKYJO7o) ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-creature-with-no-eyes/663795/9 "2013-07-19T13:44:58Z")
By “without eyes” I presume you mean species that never evolved organs of light detection. Cave creatures actually have vestigial eye processes, but they atrophied through selection, because they wereof no value when the species moved into the cave, and the absence of eyes presented no disadvantage for which to be selected out. There was a high probability of light sensor organs developing in any creature on earth, owing to the day-night cycle of light. The capacity to detect light had survival value because it enabled a creature to tell time and keep track of it, for cyclical breeding purposes. Ideal intervals for breeding, when most terrestrial creatures were emerging from the seas, took place according to tidal cycles, which also corresponded to light intensities from the sun and moon. So it had survaval value for a creature to be able to detect light, and accordingly, synchronize its breeding cycle with that of optimal tides. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-creature-with-no-eyes/663795/10 "2013-07-19T18:28:58Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > By “without eyes” I presume you mean species that never evolved organs of light detection. I presumed the OP merely meant ‘no functional sense of vision’. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-creature-with-no-eyes/663795/11 "2013-07-19T19:53:26Z")
[Caecilians](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caecilians) meet some of your standards but not all. They’re amphibians. Reasons why I am unsure are: they can see light/dark, but not much shape; at any rate, vision isn’t their primary sense. Also many species are underground, but [some are aquatic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhlonectidae). And are capable of leaving water. I take blind to mean “can’t see” as well, not completely eyeless. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-creature-with-no-eyes/663795/12 "2013-07-19T20:00:51Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I presumed the OP merely meant ‘no functional sense of vision’. Eyes are organs that detect light and convert it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons. (Wiki) “No eyes” means such organs are absent. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/land-creature-with-no-eyes/663795/13 "2013-07-19T20:15:14Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Eyes are organs that detect light and convert it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons. (Wiki) > > “No eyes” means such organs are absent. Thank you. All of that was quite obvious to me. However, I read the intent of the OP to be asking about non-sighted creatures, regardless of the precise physiological details.