I realize how goofy this question is, but I am actually curious as to what experiment could be developed to ascertain whether they do or not. I saw a video of a butterfly that had pupated inside a geodesic sphere toy and subsequently been stuck. I wondered whether it had the capacity to think that it had made a huge mistake or not.
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Yes, insects do retain knowledge from their larval stages.
https://youtu.be/5OdHqtBtzgg?si=ORiHCPIY3ImON__g
But they probably are not intelligent enough to conceive of the concept “I have made a mistake.” That requires a level of self-awareness that very few animals actually seem to possess. Although, who knows? We’ve occasionally discovered cognitive abilities in various animals that have surprised us, so it probably isn’t completely impossible.
Yes. There was an experiment where caterpillars were shocked when exposed to ethyl acetate and learned to be averse to it. When they became moths, they were still averse to it. https://www.iflscience.com/do-butterflies-remember-being-caterpillars-72943
As for your example, that would seem to require higher reasoning of cause and effect, so probably not to that extent.
There was an experiment involving giving mild electric shocks to caterpillers along with certain smells. They essentially trained them to avoid the smell where they were electrocuted. When they turned into butterflies the oned that recieved the shocks still avoided the smell.
I assume they dont ‘think’ anything on the level of ‘have I made a mistake’ nor do they have a ‘memory’ of being a pupae. Their brains just dont appear to have any level of size or complexity for that. They may, well, they are, capable of retaining information between stages. But I dont think that is a memory as such. Its more like just a complex chemical reaction to events that have occurred earlier. Our immune system can produce responses to diseases they have previously encountered, but that is not a memory in the sense of a conscious thought.
Can’t recall where I read this, but yes, they can retain their “memory”. I don’t think it’s “memory” in a human sense, but certain neural pathways can carry over through metamorphosis. So yes, fragments of larval experience can survive the transition.
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Everyone is mentioning the caterpillar study, which is fantastic and was part of my uni curriculum lol. In fact, evidence for larval memory retention is so strong that it is recognised as its own form of learning (along with embryonic learning, learning in early life, etc.).