What Makes Queen Bees So Smart?
Brainy bumblebees still succumb to the temptations of caffeine and sugar
A bumblebee’s brain is smaller than a sesame seed. But it can still accomplish quite a bit.
“You don’t need a big brain to learn well,” said Felicity Muth, an assistant professor in the Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior and a National Geographic Explorer who studies cognition in bees and other animals. “Bumblebees are capable of many of the same cognitive feats as many vertebrates.”
Previously, Muth studied the behavior of birds. But now she studies the thought processes of bumblebees — how they learn, how they choose which flowers to visit — and what motivates them. Her goal, said Muth, is to understand how they think about the world that they inhabit.