People jump into a swimming pool seeking relief from the summer heat, in Sanaa, Yemen on August 7, 2025. (Photo by Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)

Performers kiss the Olympic Torch as Julien Segui carries the Olympic Torch at Moulin Rouge during the second day of the Paris 2024 Olympic Torch Relay on July 15, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)

A Capetonian watches the sun rise from the top of Signal Hill as smoke engulfs the city of Cape Town, South Africa, Tuesday April 20, 2021. A massive fire spreading on the slopes of the city's famed Table Mountain, at right, is kept under control as firemen and helicopters take advantage of the low winds to contain the blaze. (Photo by Jerome Delay/AP Photo)

An aerial view taken on March 8, 2021, shows Chinese fishing vessel Lurong Yuan Yu that ran aground on reefs of Pointe-aux-Sables in Port Louis, Mauritius, on March 7, 2021. (Photo by L'Express Maurice/AFP Photo)

A Nepalese Hindu devotee bathes in the Bagmati River on her way to the Pashupatinath Temple to offer prayers to Lord Shiva, Hindu god of destruction during Shravan festivities in Sundarijal, on the outskirts of Kathmandu on August 3, 2015. According to the Nepali calendar, Shravan is considered the holiest month of the year with each Monday of the month known as Shravan Somvar when worshippers offer prayers for a happy and prosperous life. (Photo by Prakash Mathema/AFP Photo)

People play "Palin", a traditional ritual and ancestral Mapuche game played with curved sticks called "Chuecas" and a wooden ball, during a meet on Dia de la Raza (Day of the Races), also known as Columbus Day in Vina del Mar, Chile October 11, 2015. (Photo by Rodrigo Garrido/Reuters)

Once upon a time a myth was born that insects, unlike animals, are just a machines that not capable of learning and survive only based on their instincts. That myth has become the widespread opinion. Of course, this opinion is indeed erroneous, like many other widespread opinions. Let us try to find out which part is a myth and which part is true.

A Common Blue Morpho butterfly lands on the arm of Garbiella as it and hundreds of other butterflies from around the world fill the bird aviary for the next month at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in San Diego, California March 13, 2015. Called the Butterfly Jungle, the exhibit has over 30 species of butterflies. (Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters)