Problem-solving spreads both socially and culturally in bumblebees

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-10/p-psb100416.php

Public Release: 4-Oct-2016
Problem-solving spreads both socially and culturally in bumblebees
Watching each other helps these social insects learn to pull strings for a sugar water reward
PLOS

String pulling is a popular problem-solving task for investigating cognitive abilities in vertebrates, but has never been tested in insects. Now, a social insect has joined the club, according to a study publishing October 4, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Lars Chittka from Queen Mary University of London, UK, and colleagues. The researchers found that bumblebees can figure out how to pull a string to get a sugar water reward, that watching this helps other bees learn to do it too, and that this new skill continues to spread through a colony even after the original string-puller is gone.

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