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Bees can recognize human faces, study finds
Honeybees may look pretty much all alike to us. But it seems we may not look all alike to them. A study has found that they can learn to recognize human faces in photos, and remember them for at least two days.
The findings toss new uncertainty into a long-studied question that some scientists considered largely settled, the researchers say: how humans themselves recognize faces.
The results also may help lead to better face-recognition software, developed through study of the insect brain, the scientists added.
Many researchers traditionally believed facial recognition required a large brain, and possibly a specialized area of that organ dedicated to processing face information. The bee finding casts doubt on that, said Adrian G. Dyer, the lead researcher in the study.
He recalls that when he made the discovery, it startled him so much that he called out to a colleague, telling her to come quickly because “no one’s going to believe it—and bring a camera!”
Dyer said that to his knowledge, the finding is the first time an invertebrate has shown ability to recognize faces of other species. But not all bees were up to the task: some flunked it, he said, although this seemed due more to a failure to grasp how the experiment worked than to poor facial recognition specifically.
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Originally posted by Alikospah
I remember hearing, several times, that bees will follow the beekeeper's casket to burial. I thought it was an old urban legend.
Has anyone ever heard of a bee sting passing on a virus? I was stung twice by the same yellow jacket and a kind of rough surfaced "freckle" appeared there. Slowly over the years, they have spread and I have small mole like things with that rough surface all over. I once mentioned it to a doctor but he shook his head. But I am convinced, that thing stung me twice on the leg and there is a spot at both places.