Junior Lambrechts has his face painted in preparation for the Cape Minstrel Carnival in Cape Town, South Africa on January 2, 2023. (Photo by Shelley Christians/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 leopard leaps into a muddy waterhole to catch a fish on August 13, 2015, in the Savuti Channel in Botswana. A leopard leaps into a muddy waterhole to catch a fish in the Savuti Channel in Botswana. The spotted predator stood poised waiting for a fish to appear – before leaping in ferociously with lightening reflexes. Coated in a layer of thick dark mud the big cat emerged from the water clutching the fish in its jaws. The fishing leopards of Savuti are known for their unique skills in catching fish – but have rarely been photographed. (Photo by Greatstock/Barcroft Media)

People line up to pay inside a Makro supermarket in Caracas, January 9, 2015. Venezuela's socialist government decreed an “economic emergency” on Friday that will expand its powers and published the first data in a year that shows the depth of a recession fueled by low oil prices and a sputtering state-led model. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

A boy uses a mobile phone as he sits inside his father's snacks shop along a road in Kolkata, India, February 22, 2016. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

Thousands of heavy-duty trucks loaded with coal are lined up for up to 130 kilometres from the Mongolia-China border on a sole road in the Gobi desert, Mongolia, October 29, 2017. The journey can take more than a week. (Photo by Bazarsukh Rentsendorj/Reuters)

An aerial view of rock salt collection pool made of tarpaulin, where rock salt is obtained by collecting the natural spring water in the mountains and evaporating the water, in Kozluk District of Batman, Turkiye on August 22, 2022. The production of rock salt, passed down from generation to generation, became the sole source of income for 45 households in the village of Derince, with a population of about 400 of Batman. (Photo by Omer Yasin Ergin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)