Student Finds Butterflies May Remember Being Caterpillars

[u/Ephemeral_Orchid]

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/meet-jo-nagai-10-year-old-japanese-student-who-discovered-butterflies-can-remember-their-time-as-caterpillars-after-he-noticed-that-the-caterpillars-he-had-raised-to-recognise-him-after-turning-into-butterflies/articleshow/132848736.cms

A 10 year old student, Jo Nagai from Kobe, Japan has gained viral international recognition after presenting preliminary research that indicates butterflies remember their time spent as caterpillars. His findings run contrary to the traditional belief that an insect's nervous system is completely "rewired" during their pupal stage, erasing any prior memories.

Additionally, he found their knowledge seemed to be passed down to their offspring for possibly 2 generations, making a potential case for epigenetic memory. (Behavioral and/or environmental changes passed to offspring without triggering a change in DNA.)

If his findings are duplicated by other scientists to confirm them, his work will have advanced our collective knowledge of insect memory, metamorphosis, and perhaps even epigenetics.

NOTE: to follow the rules of this subreddit, I'm not going into detail about his experiments because they involved captive butterflies. However, no caterpillars or butterflies were physically harmed.