Insect cognition Insect cognition 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. Researchers have examined insect cognition in bees, fruit flies, and wasps. Research questions consist of experiments aimed to evaluate insects abilities with perception, attention, memory (wasp multiple nest), spatial cognition, tools use, problem solving, and concepts. Unlike in animal behavior the concept of group cognition plays a big part in insect studies. It is hypothesized some insect classes like ant and bees think with a group cognitive to function within their
Leafcutter ant foraged food, mainly consisting of leaves, it is protected from "Escovopsis" by the antibiotic secretions of Actinobacteria (genus "Pseudonocardia"). This mutualistic micro-organism lives in the metapleural glands of the ant. Actinobacteria are responsible for producing the majority of the world's antibiotics today. When the ants are out collecting leaves, they are at risk of attack by some species of phorid flies, parasitoids that lay eggs into the crevices of the worker ants' heads. Often, a minim will sit on a worker ant and ward off any attack. Also, the wrong type of fungus can grow during cultivation. "Escovopsis", a highly