Can a butterfly (or moth) remember life as a catterpillar?
As you know (or at least should know), butterflies and moths are known for their metamorphosis from catterpillars to their adult form. This radical change involves not just a change of look, but it also includes changes in lifestyle, diet, sensorial impulses and many many other differences. So it would seem very probable that the buttefly has no memory whatsoever of its life in the previous form. Well, as strange as it would seem, scientists at Georgetown University found out that tobacco hornworm caterpillars could be trained to avoid particular odors delivered in association with a mild shock; and when it emerged from that form, it still avoided the odors, showing larval memory. This is in fact the first study to prove beyond a doubt that associative memory can survive metamorphosis in Lepidoptera. “The intriguing idea that a caterpillar’s experiences can persist in the adult butterfly or moth captures the imagination, as it challenges a broadly-held view of metamorphosis — that the
