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Bumblebees Master Light Cues, Challenge Cognition Theories

11/12/2025

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Summary

Story summary

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London showed that bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) distinguish short and long light flashes.
They used these cues to guide foraging by light-duration alone.
In a maze, bees linked flash durations to a reward and chose the correct light when the reward was absent.
The results challenge the view that temporal processing is limited to humans and vertebrates, with implications for animal and AI cognition.

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Story summary

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London showed that bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) distinguish short and long light flashes.
They used these cues to guide foraging by light-duration alone.
In a maze, bees linked flash durations to a reward and chose the correct light when the reward was absent.
The results challenge the view that temporal processing is limited to humans and vertebrates, with implications for animal and AI cognition.