A Sunni Muslim child plays in the rain as she arrives for Eid al-Fitr prayers at the shrine of cleric Sheikh Abdul Qadir al-Gailani in Baghdad, Iraq on March 31, 2025. (Photo by Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters)

A visitor takes a picture of the painting “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972” by British painter David Hockney during a press visit ahead of the opening of the exhibition “David Hockney 25” at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, France, on April 8, 2025. (Photo by Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters)

Nuns light candles during the Catholic Washing of the Feet ceremony during Easter Holy Week in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City on March 28, 2024. (Photo by Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)

Passengers with their pet dogs take a pet-friendly train on the Jinyidong Line of the Jinhua Rail Transit on June 22, 2025 in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province of China. (Photo by Shi Bufa/VCG via Getty Images)

A woman poses for a souvenir photo with a cat statue on display at the Shenzhen Bay commercial district, in Shenzhen, China's Guangdong province, Monday, September 15, 2025. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)

This spiky tenrec was spotted in Madagascar’s Mantadia National Park in the last decade of September 2025. Mostly nocturnal and rarely seen, it puffs out its spines when threatened. Spiky tenrecs are excellent swimmers — unlike most spiny mammals, some species of tenrec can forage in streams and rivers, using their spines for protection while hunting aquatic insects and small prey. (Photo by Dale Morris/Solent News & Photo Agency)

A woman walks past debris as Super Typhoon Ragasa hits the Central district in Hong Kong on September 24, 2025. Hong Kong's weather service issued the highest level of typhoon warning in the early hours, as Super Typhoon Ragasa brought powerful winds and lashing rain to the southern Chinese coast. (Photo by Peter Parks/AFP Photo)

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.