4 ms·

The key bit from the abstract: As long as they could not see themselves in a mirror, ants with a blue dot painted on their clypeus did not try to remove it. Se

The key bit from the abstract: As long as they could not see themselves in a mirror, ants with a blue dot painted on their clypeus did not try to remove it. Set in front of a mirror, ants with such a blue dot on their clypeus tried to clean themselves, while ants with a brown painted dot — of the same color as that of their cuticle — on their clypeus and ants with a blue dot on their occiput did not clean themselves. Very young ants did not present such behavior.

weinzierl 11y ago
And from the conclusion: Briefly, if an animal detains self recognition ability, it will recognize itself in a mirror and will try to clean the alien colored spot it bears. The inverse is not always true: if an animal clean itself in front of a mirror, it might do so without recognizing itself. So, on the basis that ants conspicuously marked on their clypeus clean themselves while ants marked otherwise do not, both only after having been in front of a mirror, it can be presumed (but not yet asserted) that, for the Myrmica species presently tested, and for individuals of a given age, self recognition is not impossible.
biturd 11y ago
I am not a scientist of any field, but the above sort of made me think twice. They used a mirror. I would think, just by virtue of the ant seeing something in a mirror and being able to deduce "hey, that is me, there is something up with my swag here, I better freshen up a bit". That ant not only determined based on the looks of others, compared it to himself in a reflection, and made the decision it was wrong enough to attempt to remove it. Can I further think they can tell the difference from say, an "ant birthmark" and just paint? If so, I am pretty shocked at just how self aware they appear to be.

weinzierl 11y ago

And from the conclusion: Briefly, if an animal detains self recognition ability, it will recognize itself in a mirror and will try to clean the alien colored spot it bears. The inverse is not always true: if an animal clean itself in front of a mirror, it might do so without recognizing itself. So, on the basis that ants conspicuously marked on their clypeus clean themselves while ants marked otherwise do not, both only after having been in front of a mirror, it can be presumed (but not yet asserted) that, for the Myrmica species presently tested, and for individuals of a given age, self recognition is not impossible.

biturd 11y ago

I am not a scientist of any field, but the above sort of made me think twice. They used a mirror. I would think, just by virtue of the ant seeing something in a mirror and being able to deduce "hey, that is me, there is something up with my swag here, I better freshen up a bit". That ant not only determined based on the looks of others, compared it to himself in a reflection, and made the decision it was wrong enough to attempt to remove it. Can I further think they can tell the difference from say, an "ant birthmark" and just paint? If so, I am pretty shocked at just how self aware they appear to be.