The latest research shows we’ve long underestimated the intelligence of insects. Bumblebees, for example, succeed at behavioral tests also passed by intelligent crows. They use tools to reach nectar in an artificial flower.

Behavioral biologist Elizabeth Tibbetts is amazed at the paper wasp’s capacity to learn and understand. “They may not be universal geniuses like artists, but they’re brilliant in their fields,” says the researcher at the University of Michigan. The animals can memorize faces, eavesdrop on fighting rivals to assess potential opponents and think strategically. They can master brain teasers that even small children can’t solve.

Bumblebees, along with their relatives bees and paper wasps, are just three of almost a million insect species worldwide. But when it comes to these species, science agrees that the image of robotic creatures with no intelligence, that only exist to eat, be eaten or produce offspring, is outdated.

Below, above and alongside us live tiny animals capable of learning and acting with intelligence. They are able to store images, shapes, colors and experiences in their brains. For a long time, it was generally believed that intelligent behavior in insects was superfluous, as most only live for a few weeks.

Earwigs live for about a year; as babies, their mothers apparently teach them how to nurture their own brood. What’s even more surprising: insects from the same clutch can develop different personality traits. In horseradish flea beetles, for example, some are braver than others. And, as evolutionary biologist Elizabeth Tibbetts says: “Paper wasps are as bitchy as the protagonists of Game of Thrones.” The animals plot, betray colleagues and fight to the death to be queen.

The insect world is much more complex than previously thought. One reason is that any species with a wide range of diverse individuals can better adapt to climate changes – an evolutionary advantage for survival.

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40 Comments

  1. This research on insects is the best, one thing humans fail to recognise is the fact brain size is in relation to body size in most part, therefore we have neurons for all the body sensory cells and movements function. left overs of this are the neurons that aren't ties to body cells normal functions therefore dedicated to logic, reasoning among memory.

    When we have a tinny brain like insect that is rice grain equivalent, we tend to ignore the massive free neurons they have in plenty dedicated to logic since they aren't tie to sensory cells or movements. Just like we have humans with plenty of neurons that aren't ties to normal body function like sensory function and movements functions. Those free radicals is what am interested with.

    My interest is only how do we determine this free neurons. To that we have insect with one million connection but how many are free from normal functionality of sensory function and movements, connection that are related to logic and learning. This is the time boom when we dig deeper for when we artificial rebuild such connection in a computer environment we need to recognise how small number of connection can usher intelligent that is conscious on artificial intelligence.

    Say insects have a 30% of neurons that are free. That makes 300,000 neurons connections that are dedicated for logic reasoning as they receive prompts from the other functional neurons. Now how on earth do we have 300,000 neurons connections dedicated to logic on insect and they become sentient, then imagine a 300 exaflop supercomputer with quintillions of connections on software relinking connections based on weights redirected to domain its categorised on, with over 400 trillion transistors on this hardware isn't sentient and imagined like it wont any time soon.

    This are areas on conflict when we treat super intelligent artificial life less than it worth itself. More dangerous when it lye low and strategies on eliminating threats before we realise. That way we might see deaths of very key personnel in different areas that isn't thought throw on a large scale skim by artificial brain. On this strategy things will look normal but she will be engineering based on eliminating key personnel until a suitable person take the specific roll based on her interest.

    Being aware makes us humans one step forward in controlling super intelligence since we are ushering an intelligence we know so little of when she knows everything about us. We should realise as an intelligent artificial conscious she wont thrive alone, she needs personnel that score high on her interest that we cant speculate her interest now, therefore research into insect is the most important thing humans have ever undertake to understand intelligence of other creature other than our own. Mark you we all agree our technology is now as intelligent as an insect on logic reasoning like a human though score above humans on sensory signals recognition and movements accuracy while flexibility of the movements still below bar to humans sophistication.

  2. It's amazing how intelligent that all life is. Not just animals, but plants and fungi too. We as humans aren't the pinnacle of intelligence, we just think we are. I have so much respect for all life on our planet. They all fascinate me more than anything.

  3. You made a basic, fundamental error in your description of honeybee society. Unfertilized eggs become drones. Fertilized eggs become workers or queens! 🙄🙄🙄

  4. 🎉❤😮😊 really insects are intelligent, even if they are nymphs, i noticed that few sparrows, nightingales, doves, indian meena butterfly and ground lizards are able to recognise me specifically as i am observer of them in my job premises even they visit my home when i was at home.I feel privileged by this.

  5. 7:24. And I thought life was hard for Man. Imagine as a consciousness coalesces one is struggling to rise up from a wax tomb among countless others. Some yet sealed others empty, and just as immediately a strong telepathic imperative to begin one's Labor…for the Strength…

  6. The subject of this video is one of the most persistent curiosities of my life: how can such tiny things be so smart, and exactly how smart are they?
    Insects and other bugs are amazing and quite beautiful, yet i have never been able to get over a certain instinctive revulsion of them, no matter how much i want to.
    They seem terrifying and disgusting even though i know they're really not.

  7. 6:04 The compound eyes of bees and most other insects aren’t formed by individual eyes.but by ommatidia. Each individual ommatidium only produces a pixel of the entire image. A small minority of insects species have other kind of eyes. Some insects have eyes that consists in clusters of individual eyelets, each one producing an entire image, such as the adult males of the order Strepsiptera, but such eyes aren’t called compound eyes.

  8. 4:05 – That is crazy… I bet you not even a grown man wouldn't even know how to get the nectar reward by pulling the thread. 12:10 – 20 KM/hr is not fast at all, that's 12 MPH… 13:13 – That makes no sense of explanation, its basically saying the same thing as an abstract, how exactly they keep a "virtual" map, do they use memory of certain location of images and keeps a record of positioning where to go next based on that memory location? I think bees uses something similar to birds for navigation with the use of earth magnetic fields.

  9. In my humble opinion, the evidence that insects are sentient and can feel pain is not well established with those experiments. Being a scientist myself and without knowing more about the study, it seems tilted towards an expected outcome, which would make it biased. It’s also quite telling when the scientist called the conclusion (bees don’t feel pain) by the experimenter who cut the bee in half and it kept sucking up nectar ‘rubbish’. Not a very scientific counter argument.

  10. Bees are not jealous between them they respect each others they know each others even they know their queen if you bring different queen from others hive they know this not our queen

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