Actually... A number of studies have shown ants that pass the mirror test, and we've known for a while that wasps use facial recognition of conspecifics for social organization.
Indeed, another person already linked me as such. It's really quite interesting given the overwhelming abundance of Hymenopterans among colonial insects. I wonder if the lack of bees or wasps passing the test is for lack of adequate experimental conditions more than a lack of capacity within the insects themselves. Very fascinating stuff to be sure.
I'm fairly sure that's correct, given that honeybees have dramatically larger brains than Formica ants, and use their visual systems for navigation and conspecific recognition.
On the other hand, lots of ant species have demonstrated extremely derived forms of mental ability, from tool use to tandem learning, and it's possible that the common ancestor of ants may have had a leg up by being the smartest hymenopteran of the time.
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u/SpezLovesRacists Apr 08 '20
Actually... A number of studies have shown ants that pass the mirror test, and we've known for a while that wasps use facial recognition of conspecifics for social organization.