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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Photo: Moths Remember Lessons Learned While Caterpillars


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A tobacco hornworm larva (left) retains memories as it metamorphoses from a pupa (far right) to an adult moth (center), a new study says.

Researchers who trained late-stage larvae to avoid a nail-polish odor found that the bugs also kept away from the smell as adults.

The findings suggest a caterpillar keeps part of its brain through metamorphosis.

Photograph courtesy Richard Vogt (Graduate Director and Professor of Biological Sciences, Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina)