Do ants recognize their reflection in a mirror?
The following is quoted from the website
https://www.animalcognition.org/2015/04/15/list-of-animals-that-have-passed-the-mirror-test/
In 2015, scientists published research that suggests some ants can recognize themselves when looking in a mirror. When viewing other ants through glass, ants didn't divert from their normal behaviors.
However, their behavior did change when they were put in front of a mirror. The ants would move slowly, turn their heads back and forth, shake their antennae, and touch the mirror. They'd retreat and re-approach the mirror. Sometimes they would groom themselves.
The ants were next given a classic mirror test. The team of researchers would use blue dots to mark the clypeus of some of the ants, which is a part of their face near their mouths.
When in an environment without mirrors, these ants would behave normally, and wouldn't touch the markings. But this changed when they could see their reflections in a mirror. The ants with blue dots on their face would groom and appear to try to remove the markings.
Very young ants, and other ants with brown dots that blended in with the color of their face didn't clean themselves. Interestingly, neither did ants with blue dots put on the back of their heads.
When put in the company of those with blue-dotted faces, other ants would respond aggressively, presumably because the difference caused them to think the blue-dotted ant was an outsider (not a member of their colony). All of this lead the researchers to conclude that the clypeus is a species-specific physical characteristic that is important for group acceptance.
Given that these ants tried to clean the mark rather than respond aggressively, the ants likely didn't think their reflection was just another ant. The team thinks their study shows that self-recognition is not an "unrealistic" ability in ants.
Follow up questions:
What do you do when a colony of insects infests your home?
Do you view the killing of an insect as the moral equivalent of killing a bird or mammal?
Don't insects only behave on an instinctual level?