Are praying mantises pretty smart? Do inchworms have the highest IQ? Or is it the humble bumblebee that beats out the beetles in the quest for the smartest insect? We take a closer look at which insects are truly in the running when it comes to smarts.
Measuring intelligence in a non-human animal is a pretty tricky game. However, multiple experiments have been carried out to test the capabilities of tiny insect brains with some surprising results.
Bright bees
For starters, honey bees can do basic math, understand the concept of zero, and even recognize odd and even numbers. Bees also possess pretty incredible navigation capabilities, able to find the shortest most optimal route between flowers.
As well as their prowess in arithmetic, bees also have great memories, impressive dance-based communication skills, and make honey to boot. Asian honey bees even scream in warning when attacked by hornets.
Did we mention that they can create their own waves to surf to safety, saving themselves from drowning too? Not bad for an insect with a brain the size of a poppy seed.
Able ants
Ants are also famous for their intelligence, particularly their ability to work as a team in huge colonies.
While they might not be known for their academic achievements in the same way as bees, ants have practical skills on lock; some farm fungus species, while others even keep “livestock” in the form of aphids, building them shelters, and protecting them from bad weather. In return, the ants get the honeydew from the aphids.
Ants have also been found to use previous experiences to make decisions based on the good of the colony, even changing their priorities.
They have excellent survival strategies too; as the doctors of the insect world, some ant species perform amputations after battle and even treat each other’s wounds with antibiotics, while fire ants can be found building rafts and “treadmilling” their way to safety during floods.
Wise wasps
While bees and ants might have the benefit of a colony to help develop their intelligence, tarantula hawk wasp mothers have to do it alone. Their particular brand of smarts involves finding and immobilizing a tarantula, dragging it back to a burrow, and laying one single egg on the carcass.
When the egg hatches, it uses the tarantula’s body as fuel, eating its way through until it is time to pupate into an adult. A home and a food source all in one is a pretty smart start to life.
Source Link: Ants, Bees, Wasps, Or Something Else Entirely: What Is The Smartest Insect?
