In this February 27, 1984, file photo, singer Placido Domingo laughs with members of the Rockettes at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The singer and dancers met while rehearsing for Channel Thirteen's “Gala of Stars 1984”. Nine women in the opera world have told The Associated Press that they were sexually harassed by Domingo, one of the most celebrated and powerful men in opera. The women say the encounters took place over three decades, at venues that included opera companies where he held top managerial positions. (Photo by Steve Friedman/AP Photo/File)

A baby elephant gives himself a dust bath in Kruger National Park, South Africa early November 2022. (Photo by Sylvie Failletaz/Solent News)

A couple buy a sugar-coated Chinese haw to a child at the Qianmen pedestrian shopping street, a popular tourist spot in Beijing, Tuesday, January 3, 2023. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)

A boy reaches for a ball on a creek clogged with plastic waste on April 15, 2023 in Caloocan, Metro Manila, Philippines. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

Volunteers wait before taking part in the 66th National Day celebrations in Malaysia's administrative capital Putrajaya, on August 31, 2023. The country commemorates the independence of the Federation of Malaya from British rule in 1957. (Photo by Mohd Rasfan/AFP Photo)

Horse archery competitor Kimberley Robertson with her horse Chiko at her home in Hirstglen, Queensland, Australia on April 9, 2024. (Photo by Aston Brown/The Guardian)

A male stag beetle walks on a branch in an oak forest near the Spree River in Kersdorf, Brandenburg, Germany, on June 8, 2025. (Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images)

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.