Try to imagine a brain the size of a tiny poppy seed. Believe it or not, scientists have just discovered a brain this small that is capable of processing abstract concepts, just like humans. This brain belongs to the insect species Bombus terrestris—the common bumblebee—and is capable of distinguishing between light patterns based purely on their duration. Yes, believe it or not, bumblebees are capable of learning Morse code.
Not only do they spend their lives buzzing from flower to flower and being cute, but these little insects are also capable of processing temporal information presented to them visually. It seems simple, but for a long time, this cognitive ability was believed to be exclusive to vertebrates. The study, recently published in the journal Biology Letters, makes us redefine what we believe intelligence to be.
The Morse Code Experiment
It all started when a research team at Queen Mary University of London, led by Alex Davidson, came up with the idea of showing wild bumblebees a small foraging area with two flashing LED lights. While one flashed with long pulses lasting several seconds, the second flashed more rapidly, with pulses lasting 0.5 seconds. (Hence the analogy of simplified Morse code.)
To get the bumblebees to cooperate, the researchers used positive incentives—sugar water in this case. The duration of one particular flash was linked to the sweet reward, while the other flash was associated with a deterrent: quinine. You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar… and apparently this applies to bumblebees too.
The bumblebees were trained until they repeatedly navigated to the correct flash that would reward them. The success rate was 75%: more than 15 correct answers out of 20 attempts. The real test of their cognitive ability came when the researchers completely removed the sugar reward. After all, they had to make sure that the bees weren’t just smelling the sugar and following the trail, but that their choices were based on cognitive decisions. Even without the sweet treat, the bumblebees continued to select the light pattern previously associated with this sugar. Apparently, they had learned to discriminate between long and short flash durations.
This leads scientists to consider confirmed the notion that Bombus terrestris bumblebees can process “temporal information,” something we believed was reserved for the animal elite.
The cognitive intelligence of insects
This finding confirms the sheer efficiency of the bumblebee’s nervous system.
The fact that a living being with a brain the size of a poppy seed is capable of managing such complex cognitive processes forces us to reconsider what we understand as intelligent life. Scientists already suspected that bumblebees were more intelligent creatures than we expected.
In fact, they have a proven track record of brilliance, as they have demonstrated their ability to learn and teach each other how to solve puzzles. Although they are a species in which each bumblebee lives individually, they do come together seasonally during the breeding season and are able to interact with each other to communicate knowledge.
Many years ago, it was proven that they are capable of damaging the leaves of certain plants to accelerate their flowering and access nectar before other pollinators. This fascinating behavior resembles a rudimentary form of agriculture, as they know how to artificially alter flora’s natural cycle in their environment.
Since the flashing lights in the lab are not natural signals for bumblebees—they will not encounter them spontaneously in nature—scientists have two main hypotheses: the first is that this time-processing ability could be an extension of existing skills. Perhaps it developed to accurately track movement in space, or to coordinate internal communication in the bumblebee nest. The second hypothesis is that it could be a fundamental property of neurons, which would suggest the ability to encode time in a basic element of the nervous system, regardless of the size of the brain that houses it.
