The brainy bees that get a real buzz out of numbers

WHILE they are expert honey-makers, few would expect bees to have mastered maths.

However the tiny creatures, with a brain the size of a pinhead, can tell the difference between more, less and zero.

After up to four hours of training, with a sugary treat as a reward, bees can learn to fly to a piece of paper with the smallest number of shapes on it.

In an achievement putting them on a par with chimpanzees, parrots and three-year-old children, the tiny insects realise zero is the lowest number of all.

In experiments using ten to 12 bees, carried out by RMT University in Melbourne, all flew to a blank sheet of paper. Compared to a piece with one to six shapes on it, they knew an empty sheet meant no shapes. That is despite having fewer than a million brain cells, compared with 86billion in the human brain. The latest evidence of bee intelligence may explain why they are so good at navigating, foraging and managing complex hives. Dr Adrian Dyer, co-author of the study, in the journal Science, said: ‘Zero is a difficult concept... It takes children a few years to learn.’