Bumblebees look and learn

Bumblebees have been shown to watch and copy the foraging preferences of other bumblebees (and even dummy bumblebees) according to bumblebee researcher Bradley Worden of the University of Arizona.

The work on bumblebees by Worden is just another nail in the coffin of the idea that there is a fundamental difference in mental abilities between vertebrates and invertebrates, said Chittka. “The idea that insects are simple reflex machines, because of their short life span and miniature brains, has to be abandoned.”