Personalities of an insect

Capiz National High School INSECTS are a class in the phylumarthropoda. They are small terrestrial invertebrates that have a hard exoskeleton. The most famous insects are the ants, butterflies, dragonflies, bees, centipedes, cricket and frogs. Insects are one of the most popular types of animals that are featured by cartoonists. Most of the time, insects are portrayed as hard working protagonists that have to overcome an obstacle (mostly a larger animal) to accomplish their goal. Just like in real life, these insects are very cunning and wise and are able to find a solution to almost any hurdle and prevail in the end. Thus, do insects really have personalities?

Some bugs appear aggressive and others shy. Some venture into the open, others hide by the wall. But beyond casual observation, researchers are still learning the dimensions of an insect’s personality and how individuals of the same species might differ in temperament. Personality, or the characteristic way a person is most likely to behave in any given situation, is generally considered to be something very human – hence, “person-ality.” But, as research is finding, animals too can have very distinct and individual personalities, and scientists believe this has evolutionary importance for the survival of the species.

Behavioral traits of insects such as boldness and shyness are examined, how likely a shrew is to explore a new environment, how friendly a shrew might be and how likely a shrew is to pick a fight. In the study, shrews in the wild were captured in live traps and brought them back to the lab. They placed the animals into a small box with wooden walls, which is a very safe and comfortable environment for a shrew. To investigate boldness, the researchers placed the small box in an open empty cage. The door to the box was opened, and the researchers measured the hesitation time – how long the animal took to discover an exit and an outside world, and to finally leave the box. To measure aggressiveness, their aggressive behavior against the researchers is monitored. It is usually done because animals are handled. So more or less when handling it can be seen how often they bite, do they try to struggle to get away from me or do they rather just try to be calm and not use too much energy, and wait till releasing them again.

Bees are generally known to prefer blue, but there can be different preferences for variations. Learning speed can be measured by ensuring only one of the “flowers” in the garden has a reward – then bees that learn its position the fastest can more easily benefit than others. Even though they had been working separately, both groups found that there’s a wide range of differences between each individual – characteristics that form distinct personalities. Evolutionarily, it’s good to have a bunch of different personalities for a species. Even if, for that individual, it might not be the best strategy at the time.

The more social a species is, the more likely there is to be a lot of variation in personalities, it seems. In a beehive, having a variety of different personalities is a good idea because it means labor tasks can be divided more effectively and means that the hive, as a whole, will run better. (Paid article)