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 Hindu holy man on his way to the annual holy dip at Gangasagar, gestures towards a visitor as he rests at a transit camp in Kolkata, India, Wednesday, January 6, 2016. Thousands of Hindu pilgrims are expected to take the annual holy dip at Gangasagar, where the Ganges River reaches the Bay of Bengal, on the auspicious Makar Sankranti festival day that falls on Jan.14. (Photo by Bikas Das/AP Photo)

Latefat Alao, 56, a ethnic Yoruba Muslim woman, waits for customers in front of her in Beere market in Ibadan, southwest Nigeria, January 29, 2015. Much of the grain and wheat traders like Alao sell comes from the north and Boko Haram's campaign has negatively affected farmers and food markets. Reuters photographer Akintunde Akinleye photographed Nigerians and asked them about their views on the elections as well as their hopes and concerns for the country. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

People walk past the sculpture by artist Danger Dave titled “Damien Hirst looking for sharks” at the Swell Sculpture Festival at Currumbin Beach on the Gold Coast, Australia, 17 September 2021. The Swell Sculpture Festival is the largest outdoor art exhibition in Queensland and features 65 large scale contemporary sculptures set along Currumbin Beach. (Photo by Darren England/EPA/EFE)

A member of p*ssy Riot performs in the nationwide Women's March, held after Texas rolled out a near-total ban on abortion procedures and access to abortion-inducing medications, in Austin, Texas, U.S., October 2, 2021. (Photo by Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

A graffiti, portraying a woman, is seen in Medellin, Colombia on November 19, 2017. Mural graffitis from different artists, street art can be seen in almost every city on Earth, but street arts raw power and potential for change was felt by me most intensively in Medellins Comuna 13, previously one of Colombias most dangerous neighbourhoods, in fact Communa 13 was constant battleground between gangs, narcos, paramilitaries and the government, but today you would hardly recognise it. (Photo by Juancho Torres/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Ariana Lamcellari, 4, holds a sign at a protest against violence, following the charge of a British police officer in the London kidnapping and murder of Sarah Everard, in Dublin, Ireland on March 16, 2021. (Photo by Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

Two men look at the sea while taking part in the annual New Year's dive into the North Sea in Scheveningen, Netherlands on January 1, 2020. (Photo by Piroschka van de Wouw/Reuters)