Cognitive features in butterflies

[Michael Gochfeld]

Thank you for sharing this very interesting information. It will be
worth keeping an eye out for the published paper (hopefully not too long
in coming). 

The cognitive jingoists don't accept learning as evidence of cognition,
but at some point the line becomes blurred, which is part of the point
of Don Griffin's exploration. 

Mike Gochfeld

spm23 at cornell.edu wrote:
> 
> Actually, Cheryl Hienz just finished up her Ph.D. here at Cornell on
> learning in Spicebush Swallowtails.  She did a number of different
> experiments designed to test whether or not females could "learn"
> oviposition cues based on previous exposure to different host plants.
> 
> Her thesis provides strong evidence that the swallowtails
> she was working with respond to volatiles and tactile information when
> making oviposition decision.  I forget some of the details but she
> found that they preferred the volatiles from one host plant and the
> tactile chemicals of the other plant she tested.  She made a "super"
> host plant by combining the two and the butterflies definitely
> (significantly) prefered the new menu.  Anyway, just thought you might
> like to know that someone is thinking, and working, along these lines.
> 
> -Sean Mullen
> 
> On Thu, 14 Jun 2001, Michael Gochfeld wrote:
> 
> > Tired of hearing what people think NABA is for or against?
> >
> > It's time for a new thread.
> >
> >
> >   Mary Beth wrote:
> >
> > Isn't it nice that butterflies don't think, much less expound on their
> > "misunderstood lot in life..."  Must be why they are so "popular."
> >
> >
> > How do we know that they don't think?
> >
> > Don Griffin (of bat sonar fame) wrote a book ON ANIMAL AWARENESS in
> > which he provided evidence (or was it interpretation) regarding
> > cognitive capabilities of animals. It aroused a lot of media interest
> > naturally---imagine imputing higher capacity to lower organisms.
> >
> > To be sure most (maybe all) of the examples were in vertebrates. But
> > maybe no one's asked butterflies whether they "think" at any level.
> >
> > They certainly have to make complex decisions in a hurry.
> >
> > Maybe thinking would be a serious disadvantage (see future paper on
> > INDECISIVENESS IN THE LIFE OF BUTTERFLIES).
> >
> > Mike Gochfeld
> >
> >
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-- 

================================================
Michael Gochfeld, MD, PhD
Professor of Environmental and Community Medicine
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and
Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute
170 Frelinghuysen Road
Piscataway, NJ 08854  USA
732-445-0123 X627  fax 732-445-0130

 
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