Background <p>Most insects have compound eyes to enable them to see accurately, especially at night. In order to be able to see well, these eyes must be provided with some special structures, such as photonic crystals. These photonic crystals control the flow of light. In this work, the compound eyes of five insects were studied; <i>Callosobruchus maculatus</i>, <i>Galleria mellonella</i>, <i>Oryzaephilus surinamensis</i>, <i>Rhyzopertha dominica</i> and <i>Sitotroga cerealella</i>.</p> Results <p>The obtained results showed that the shape of the insect eye cell was hexagonal in most studied insects (<i>Callosobruchus maculatus</i>, <i>Galleria mellonella</i>, <i>Rhyzopertha dominica</i> and <i>Sitotroga cerealella</i>). This hexagonal shape improves the packing density, and reduces the complexity of the spatial computation compared to octagonal arrays and rectilinear squares. The hexagonal eyes have many advantages, such as greater angular resolution, equidistant connectivity, and a lesser quantization defect. EDAX analysis was carried out on the tested insect’s eyes. Sodium, aluminum and silicon elements existed in all the tested insect’s eyes.</p> Conclusion <p>Sodium, aluminum and silicon elements are considered the main components in photonic crystals. So, the compound eyes of all tested insects do their roles as photonic crystals. This leads to increased insect activity, especially nocturnal insects. The hexagonal ommatidia received more light than any other shape. So, these photonic crystals can be simulated to create night-lighting devices in a process known as biomimicry.</p>