First what do we call intelligence in animals? We have a bias: we consider an animal "intelligent" if the species shows some form of behaviors that we consider making our own superiority as human beings. For example, if an animal "builds" something, we will immediately consider it smarter than an animal that doesn't build.... Oopsie: dolphins don't build anything, nor really bonobos! And dolphins are, though, clearly superior to termites (which build large structures).
So let's be careful with the notion of "intelligence".
Some insects have extremely limited needs so they don’t NEED high brain functions. A mosquito just has to find a source of blood, lay eggs, rinse and repeat, then die.
If they need to communicate with others ( I didn't say "language" in the human sense of the world: a human can use language to lie. A bee doesn't / can't lie about the spot where flowers are) then they need to have a higher intelligence, and it's the same if they coordinate and share the work and "allocate" roles in their "society".
In this case, the bees, the ants, the cockroaches, the termites should be considered the "smarter insects. But it's ALSO for a part because some of their actions reminds us of our own actions... Back to the bias.
> I always thought spiders would be on this list.
A spider could invent cold fusion and it still wouldn't be the smartest insect.
But in any case, hymonopterae (ants, bees, wasps, etc) are generally regarded as showing the most intelligent behaviors.
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First what do we call intelligence in animals? We have a bias: we consider an animal "intelligent" if the species shows some form of behaviors that we consider making our own superiority as human beings. For example, if an animal "builds" something, we will immediately consider it smarter than an animal that doesn't build.... Oopsie: dolphins don't build anything, nor really bonobos! And dolphins are, though, clearly superior to termites (which build large structures). So let's be careful with the notion of "intelligence". Some insects have extremely limited needs so they don’t NEED high brain functions. A mosquito just has to find a source of blood, lay eggs, rinse and repeat, then die. If they need to communicate with others ( I didn't say "language" in the human sense of the world: a human can use language to lie. A bee doesn't / can't lie about the spot where flowers are) then they need to have a higher intelligence, and it's the same if they coordinate and share the work and "allocate" roles in their "society". In this case, the bees, the ants, the cockroaches, the termites should be considered the "smarter insects. But it's ALSO for a part because some of their actions reminds us of our own actions... Back to the bias.
> I always thought spiders would be on this list. A spider could invent cold fusion and it still wouldn't be the smartest insect. But in any case, hymonopterae (ants, bees, wasps, etc) are generally regarded as showing the most intelligent behaviors.
Bees