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Honeybee

Apis mellifera

About a million neurons, and bees can learn abstract concepts such as same and different.

Neurons

about 1 million estimate · whole brain

Menzel R (2001). Searching for the memory trace in a mini-brain, the honeybee. Learn Mem 8:53-62, citing Witthöft (1967).

Evidence

• Bees learn the concepts of 'sameness' and 'difference'.
  Giurfa M, Zhang S, Jenett A, Menzel R, Srinivasan MV (2001) The concepts of 'sameness' and 'difference' in an insect. Nature 410(6831):930-933. doi:10.1038/35073582.
• Agitated (shaken) bees show a pessimistic-like cognitive bias, an affect-like state.
  Bateson M, Desire S, Gartside SE, Wright GA (2011) Agitated honeybees exhibit pessimistic cognitive biases. Curr Biol 21(12):1070-1073. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2011.05.017.

The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness (2024) finds at least a realistic possibility of conscious experience in all vertebrates and in many invertebrates, including cephalopods, decapod crustaceans and insects.

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