Butterflies Prove Complex Learning May Be More Common in Insects Than We Thought

07.08.2023 - 16:11 / treehugger.com

It's easy not to think much about the intelligence of insects. Tiny creatures with even tinier brains—how smart can they be?

But as biologists begin to rethink how animals think, even insects are being seen in a new light. Now a new study from the University of Bristol finds that Heliconius butterflies are capable of spatial learning.

The results provide the first experimental evidence of spatial learning in any butterfly or moth species.  

We have known about spatial learning in insects, but mostly in ant and bee species that live socially in a communal nest. However, as noted by the University, the new research suggests that «complex learning skills, such as the use of spatial information, may be more common in insects than previously thought.»

“It’s fascinating to learn about the complex behaviours that even familiar animals like butterflies express as part of their natural ecologies," says senior study author Dr. Stephen Montgomery of the University of Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences. «These species are extracting and processing diverse information from their environment and using them to perform complex tasks—all with brains a couple of millimetres wide.” 

Dr. Priscila Moura

The team set up spatial learning experiments in Heliconius butterflies over three different spatial scales, each representing ecologically-relevant behaviors.  

They started small, testing to see if the butterflies could learn the location of a food reward in a one-square meter area containing 16 artificial flowers, which would represent foraging within a single resource patch.  

Then they increased the spatial scale to see whether Heliconius could learn to associate food with either the left or right side of a three-square