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 reveler, dressed as a Brazilian national army soldier holding a mock weapon with flowers jutting out of it, participates in the annual Gay Pride Parade in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, June 18, 2017. (Photo by Nelson Antoine/AP Photo)

Professor Xie Yong works on an art installation of a beaver, which is made out of plastic and around 300,000 needles, in Shenyang, Liaoning province, July 23, 2013. The needles, according to Xie, represent the pain felt by animals when their fur is taken off to produce clothing. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Influencer Cindy Kimberly at Viktor&Rolf Couture Spring 2024 as part of Paris Couture Fashion Week held at Sorbonne Nouvelle on January 24, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Swan Gallet/WWD via Getty Images)

Elley Dann indulges in some sunbathing in Primrose Hill, London on June 24, 2020, after the UK officially recorded its warmest day of the year so far when the temperature reached 32.6C (90.7F) at London's Heathrow Airport at 2.46pm. (Photo by Evening Standard/The Sun)

A jaguar (Panthera onca) growls at the Mata Ciliar association, an organization for the conservation of biodiversity, in Jundiai, Sao Paulo state, Brazil on May 29, 2025. Twenty-five pumas and ten jaguars are currently recovering at the Brazilian Center for the Conservation of Neotropical Felines at Mata Ciliar, a site as large as 40 football fields where monkeys, wild dogs, maned wolves, ocelots, and other regional animals are also rehabilitated. (Photo by Nelson Almeida/AFP Photo)

A woman wearing a wedding dress takes part in the so-called “brides' match” at the FIFA Fan Fest in Kazan, a host city for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Russia June 30, 2018. (Photo by Alexey Nasyrov/Reuters)

This month’s selection of travel imagery mixes quiet moments and superlative views. The overall 2018 prize is a West Greenland trip with Wild Photography Holidays. Here: “This was taken on a safari in Kruger national park, South Africa. The scene was like something straight out of a storybook: a wild baboon, impala and elephant crossing the road together, all lined up neatly in a row”. (Photo by Will Clarke/The Guardian)