Bees have higher brain cell density than birds – but ants don’t

Many bees have a brain cell density greater than that of small birds – but most ant brains contain a far lower density of neurons. The difference may be down to the insects’ lifestyles: because bees fly, they may need more brain cells than ants do in order to process visual information.

 Scientists have already compared the size and weight of various insects’ brains, which contain independent specialised regions to process visual information, sounds, smells and even memories.

 But brain size, whether in insects or vertebrate animals like birds and mammals, doesn’t always give a realistic idea of brain power. This is because some animals, especially flying animals like birds that would be weighed down by a large and heavy brain, have many neurons compacted into a smaller space, making the cell density higher. 

 Rebekah Keating Godfrey at the University of Arizona and her colleagues studied insect brains using a recently developed technique for counting brain cells. 

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