Honeybees are also discerning art critics, according to
scientists from UQ's Queensland Brain Institute and the Federal
University of Sao Carlos, Brazil. The study, published in the
Journal of Comparative Physiology A, found honeybees had
remarkable visual learning and discrimination abilities that
extended beyond simple colours, shapes or patterns. QBI
researcher Dr Judith Reinhard said honeybees had a highly
developed capacity for processing complex visual information,
and could distinguish landscape scenes, types of flowers, and
even human faces. "This suggests that in spite of their small
brain, honeybees have a highly developed capacity for processing
complex visual information, comparable in many respects to
vertebrates," she said. Dr Reinhard and her team investigated
whether this capacity extended to complex images that humans
distinguish on the basis of artistic style, including
Impressionist paintings by Monet and Cubist paintings by
Picasso. "We were able to show that honeybees learned to
simultane