Aerial view of workers repairing fishing nets in preparation for a new round of fishing season on July 27, 2025 in Wenling, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province of China. (Photo by Zhu Haiwei/Zhejiang Daily Press Group/VCG via Getty Images)

Modern and contemporary fake artworks including Banksy, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol are displayed following an Italian Carabinieri operation against a large-scale pan-European forgery network, in Pisa, Italy, on November 9, 2024. (Photo by Carabinieri/Handout via 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.

People walk past a New Year fir tree made of toys at a park in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia January 2, 2017. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

Civilians are led by members of pro-Russian self-defence units as they run outside a military base during an assault in the Crimean town of Belbek near Sevastopol March 22, 2014. Russian troops forced their way into a Ukrainian airbase in Crimea with armored vehicles, automatic fire and stun grenades on Saturday, injuring a Ukrainian serviceman and detaining the base's commander for talks. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

A Tibetan mastiff dog is displayed for sale at a mastiff show in Baoding, Hebei province, south of Beijing on March 9, 2013. Fetching prices up to around 750,000 USD, mastiffs have become a prized status-symbol amongst China's wealthy, with rich buyers across the country sending prices skyrocketing. Owners say the mastiffs, descendents of dogs used for hunting by nomadic tribes in central Asia and Tibet are fiercely loyal and protective. Breeders still travel to the Himalayan plateau to collect young puppies, although many are unable to adjust to the low altitudes and die during the journey. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)

Beryl Lipton, left, douses Matt Lee during the ice bucket challenge at Boston's Copley Square, Thursday, August 7, 2014 to raise funds and awareness for ALS. The idea is: pay up for charity or get doused. The fund-raising phenomenon is catching on fast, propelled by popular videos of the dunkers and the dunked – including famous athletes and entertainers – posted on social media sites. And the challenges are raising tens of thousands of dollars and immeasurable awareness for causes from ALS to breast cancer to a camp for kids who've lost a father to war. (Photo by Elise Amendola/AP Photo)

An AH-64D Apache attack helicopter flies in front of a wall of fire during the South Carolina National Guard Air and Ground Expo at McEntire Joint National Guard Base, South Carolina, U.S. on May 6, 2017. (Photo by Jorge Intriago/Reuters/Courtesy Air National Guard)