Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A neuron (green and white) in an insect brain (blue) Insect cognition describes the mental capacities and study of those capacities in insects. The field developed from comparative psychology where early studies focused more on animal behavior. [1] Researchers have examined insect cognition in bees, fruit flies, and wasps. [2] [3]
An insect uses its digestive system to extract nutrients and other substances from the food it consumes. [3]Most of this food is ingested in the form of macromolecules and other complex substances (such as proteins, polysaccharides, fats, and nucleic acids) which must be broken down by catabolic reactions into smaller molecules (i.e. amino acids, simple sugars, etc.) before being used by cells ...
Not all animals have neurons; Trichoplax and sponges lack nerve cells altogether. Neurons may be packed to form structures such as the brain of vertebrates or the neural ganglions of insects. The number of neurons and their relative abundance in different parts of the brain is a determinant of neural function and, consequently, of behavior.
Two groups of invertebrates have notably complex brains: arthropods (insects, crustaceans, arachnids, and others) and modern cephalopods (octopuses, squid, cuttlefish) and other molluscs. [14] The brains of arthropods and cephalopods arise from twin parallel nerve cords that extend through the body of the animal.
Like the vertebrate spinal cord, the function of the ventral nerve cord is to integrate and transmit nerve signals. It contains ascending and descending neurons that relay information to and from the brain, motor neurons that project into the body and synapse onto muscles, axons from sensory neurons that receive information from the body and environment, and interneurons that coordinate ...
Mushroom bodies visible in a Drosophila brain as two stalks. From Jenett et al., 2006 [1] The mushroom bodies or corpora pedunculata are a pair of structures in the brain of arthropods, including insects and crustaceans, [2] and some annelids (notably the ragworm Platynereis dumerilii). [3] They are known to play a role in olfactory learning ...
Sex pheromones have a higher complexity than most alarm pheromones, but a lower molar mass than marker pheromones, which permanently indicate an area. [58] In the case of flying insects - such as butterflies - the pheromone as a molecule must not be too large, otherwise the vapor pressure and volatility are too low.
Insects do not have lungs; oxygen and other gases, such as carbon dioxide, pass through their exoskeleton via tiny valves called spiracles. Insects also lack closed blood vessels ; instead, they have a long, thin, perforated tube along the top of the body (called the "dorsal aorta") that functions like a heart, and pumps haemolymph toward the ...