In 2015, scientists published research11 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.
In conclusion, we have no direct evidence of consciousness in insects.
The Mirror Test -- a behavioural test that attempts to work out whether non-human animals possess self-recognition -- has been passed by very few animals. Only seven species have passed muster -- apes, elephants, dolphins, orcas, magpies, ants and macaques have all managed to pass the test.
Dogs. Dogs were previously listed as non-self-aware animals. Traditionally, self-consciousness was evaluated via the mirror test. But dogs, and many other animals, are not (as) visually oriented.
Ants can see or sense humans, but they might not know what they are or see due to their poor sight. Although, when close to humans, they see them clearly but not fully because humans are like giants compared to their very small selves.
Ants become the pallbearer
After a few days the dead ant is carried off and placed on the “ant graveyard” by the other dead ants. This may seem like ants have complex feelings and need a few days to grieve before they dispose of the body, but in reality it's far more chemical than that.
In fact, there's mounting evidence that insects can experience a remarkable range of feelings. They can be literally buzzing with delight at pleasant surprises, or sink into depression when bad things happen that are out of their control.
A growing body of scientific evidence supports the idea that nonhuman animals are aware of death, can experience grief and will sometimes mourn for or ritualize their dead.
Many animals exhibit behaviours similarly suggestive of an inner life. Conscious creatures may include our primate cousins, cetaceans and corvids – and potentially many invertebrates, including bees, spiders and cephalopods such as octopuses, cuttlefish and squid.
Mirror self-recognition may seem obvious to people, but it requires a certain cognitive sophistication. In fact, human babies don't understand mirrors until they are 18-to-24 months old. Over the years, only a few animal species have passed the test. And dogs are not one of them.
Ant colonies can be considered as one single thinking mind, but an individual ant does not possess much intelligence at all. According to Deborah M. Gordon, a biologist at Stanford University, ants cannot accomplish many tasks as individuals because they are too inept.
To the naked eye, ants deal with their dead much like humans. When a member of the colony dies, the carcass will lie where it fell for a period of roughly two days. In the fashion of a wake, this time period presumably gives the other ants time to pay their respects to their fallen comrade.
The great apes are considered to be the smartest creatures after humans. Among them, orangutans stand out as being especially gifted with brain.
They react differently when external stimuli are applied while sleeping and while awake. But the bullfrog, Lithobates catesbeianus show the same reaction in both situations. This indicates that bullfrogs do not sleep. Lithobates catesbeianus is an animal that cannot sleep.
Chimpanzees
We share 99 percent of our DNA with chimpanzees, so it comes as no surprise that countless hours of research have been dedicated to understanding the intelligence and behavior of our sister species. This research has firmly established that chimps are one of the most intelligent species on earth.
Although my dog may stare at me like I'm a deity, there's no evidence to suggest that non-human animals have religion. They don't worship, pray or believe in gods of any kind, but they do perform ritualistic behaviours, prompting some to speculate that animals could have a spiritual side.
“I believe we are now justified in thinking that chimpanzees have some kind of awareness of death,” says psychologist James Anderson of Scotland's University of Stirling, who has been studying chimp responses to the dying.
Strange as it might seem, not all animals can immediately recognize themselves in a mirror. Great apes, dolphins, Asian elephants, and Eurasian magpies can do this—as can human kids around age 2.
Ants don't have complex emotions such as love, anger, or empathy, but they do approach things they find pleasant and avoid the unpleasant. They can smell with their antennae, and so follow trails, find food and recognise their own colony.
Over 15 years ago, researchers found that insects, and fruit flies in particular, feel something akin to acute pain called “nociception.” When they encounter extreme heat, cold or physically harmful stimuli, they react, much in the same way humans react to pain.
As far as entomologists are concerned, insects do not have pain receptors the way vertebrates do. They don't feel 'pain,' but may feel irritation and probably can sense if they are damaged. Even so, they certainly cannot suffer because they don't have emotions.
It is advised not to squash ants, doing so will only release pheromones and trigger more ants to come to the location and cause more trouble to you and your family. Ants are known to pack a deadly bite that causes excruciating pain for a short time.
Killing ants will, definitely, attract more ants because the dead ants release pheromones that attract or rather alert, nearby ants.
Ants transport their dead there in order to protect themselves and their queen from contamination. This behavior has to do with the way ants communicate with each other via chemicals. When an ant dies, its body releases a chemical called oleic acid.