"i am too a hummingbird, in fact, i am a kind of hummingbird known as a thorntail, you see that white band over my hips, all thorntails have that white band...

"ignore the rumors suggesting i am a flying shrimp!" -- flying shrimp, probably

#photograph #birds #birding #hummingbirds #insects #lepidotera #mimicry #illusions #wildlife #nature #outdoors #photography #nikon

How the insect centre for learning and memory, the mushroom body, evolves. By Farnworth et al. 2024, using the example of "the Heliconiini (Nymphalidae), which show extensive variation in mushroom body size over comparatively short phylogenetic timescales, linked to specific changes in foraging ecology, life history and cognition."

Some key findings:
* number of GABA cells change, concomitant with increase in Kenyon Cell number;
* number of DANs don't.

"Mosaic evolution of a learning and memory circuit in Heliconiini butterflies"
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.21.590441v1

#Lepidotera #neuroscience #entomology #butterflies