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How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains

bbc.com

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Re: How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains

#101

Post by niccl »

Freaky wrote: post #68
nickpsecurity wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That one is ugly. The jumping spiders have a neater look due to their colors. The really colorful ones with big eyes might not hit fear instinct so hard. Try this one I cherry-picked: http://www.arachne.org.au/_dbase_upl/spi_mm.jpg

More colourful cutie: https://www.flickr.com/photos/143940344@N06/31492457834/in/d... And a nice fluffy white one with very stubby legs: http://www.jumpingspiders.co.za/images/main/187.jpg Via https://www.reddit.com/r/awwnverts/comments/5o7nmg/my_favori... and https://www.reddit.com/r/awwnverts/comments/5lar18/floof_spi...

maybe to balance these we should have some pictures of terrifying kittens...

Re: How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains

#102

Post by joshmarlow »

zeroer wrote: post #80
joshmarlow wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really can't communicate how awesome Blindsight is. Have you read the sequel?

I only made it through one third of the sequel. I thought the quality had taken a dramatic step down and couldn't bring myself to finish it.

The story-telling wasn't as great, but the ideas he plays with are still good (though admittedly not as great as the first).

Re: How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains

#103

Post by khazhou »

BurningFrog wrote: post #86
panxie wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In English is it correct to say spiders are insects? In my native language (portuguese) it would be not accurate, as they are arachnida class, along with scorpions,mites and ticks.

Not among biologists :) In real life many people call spiders insects, either from ignorance or from not caring about the distinction.

Mostly, though, to humiliate them.

Re: How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains

#104

Post by joshmarlow »

mrybczyn wrote: post #81
joshmarlow wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep! Watts' novels are how I first heard about Portia. I can't wait for the third in the trilogy. In general, I love a good novel with a bibliography.

What, it's a trilogy? Has Watts confirmed a third novel? Last I saw, was what looked like a video game based on Blindsight.

He mentioned it in a blog post sometime ago [0].

No news on it's status, alas.

[0] http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=5438

Re: How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains

#105

Post by hnal943 »

pacaro wrote: post #98
dghughes wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then again the little grey oval Pill bug is a crustacean not an insect and not an arachnid.

And also another source of British vs. American dialect difference/confusion. In my experience, they're known in the U.K. as "woodlice", but in the US it's entirely reasonable for grown adults to refer to them as "roly-polys" The American use of "critter" also bemuses

"critter" is a corruption of "creature" and distinctly southern USA (to my Midwestern ears).

Re: How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains

#106

Post by bartread »

nostromo wrote: post #88
bartread wrote: post #14

Here's a video of the bumblebee string pulling behaviour to get at the "nectar": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSCr5OxXN1A . Quite extraordinary.

It's interesting that bees can learn new tasks, but this is amazing: > Other bumblebees learned by observing trained demonstrators from a distance. Only a small minority solved the task spontaneously. The experiments suggest that learning a nonnatural task in bumblebees can spread culturally through populations.

I know: mind blown. Amazing communication (and observation) skills. I've certainly developed a newfound respect for the humble bee.

Re: How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains

#107

Post by j_s »

Freaky wrote: post #68
nickpsecurity wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That one is ugly. The jumping spiders have a neater look due to their colors. The really colorful ones with big eyes might not hit fear instinct so hard. Try this one I cherry-picked: http://www.arachne.org.au/_dbase_upl/spi_mm.jpg

More colourful cutie: https://www.flickr.com/photos/143940344@N06/31492457834/in/d... And a nice fluffy white one with very stubby legs: http://www.jumpingspiders.co.za/images/main/187.jpg Via https://www.reddit.com/r/awwnverts/comments/5o7nmg/my_favori... and https://www.reddit.com/r/awwnverts/comments/5lar18/floof_spi...

Props for sourcing your images! That is often overlooked by just about everyone (especially when trying to meme for a buck) and breaks at least the spirit of the web.

Re: How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains

#108

Post by spqr0a1 »

drcross wrote: post #94
BurningFrog wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bees, ants, and (I think) other hive living insects share ~75% of their DNA with their hive mates. This makes it reasonable to think of the hive as one individual! Just like we are made of individual cells and organs, an ant hill is made up of individual ants. That the parts can move separately is a fairly superficial difference.

I think you mean 100% because ants are clones. The only difference between them and the queen is the nurturing process they go through which influences epigenetics.

Welcome to the complexities of Hymenoptera genetics! Workers are 75% related to each other (sisters) and only 50% related to their mother (the queen). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplodiploidy#Relatedness_rati...

Re: How insects like bumblebees do so much with tiny brains

#109

Post by hexane360 »

BurningFrog wrote: post #87
jly wrote: post #49

Eusocial insects like honeybees, some wasps, and ants take this even one step further by combining the extraordinary but limited powers of one individual insect to make highly-complex decisions with the coordinated input from thousands or millions of individuals. It's often stated that after humans, these eusocial insects are the most advanced life form on earth. After studying, for example, the fascinating voting pr…

Bees, ants, and (I think) other hive living insects share ~75% of their DNA with their hive mates. This makes it reasonable to think of the hive as one individual! Just like we are made of individual cells and organs, an ant hill is made up of individual ants. That the parts can move separately is a fairly superficial difference.

Ender's game explores this idea from a more philosophical perspective.
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