Thermoception

[4] A particularly specialized form of thermoception is used by Crotalinae (pit viper) and Boidae (boa) snakes, which can effectively see the infrared radiation emitted by hot objects.

The infrared sense enables Desmodus to localize homeothermic (warm-blooded) animals (cattle, horses, wild mammals) within a range of about 10 to 15 cm.

Darkly pigmented butterflies Pachliopta aristolochiae and Troides rhadamantus use specialized heat detectors to avoid damage while basking.

In humans, temperature sensation from thermoreceptors[a] enters the spinal cord along the axons of Lissauer's tract that synapse on second order neurons in grey matter of the dorsal horn.

A study in 2017 shows that the thermosensory information passes to the lateral parabrachial nucleus rather than to the thalamus and this drives thermoregulatory behaviour.

Positions of the pit organs (arrowed in red) on a python, relative to its nostril (black arrow)