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OftenBen · 3439 days ago · link · · parent · post: Insects may be able to feel fear, anger and empathy, after all.
I don't know if delayed reaction to stimuli is proof of emotional response. Especially feeding responses, like in the flies.
I agree. Frankly, as a biologist who works with insects, but certainly not a neuroscientist or ethologist, I find all of the "evidence" for insect emotions in this piece to be profoundly unconvincing. But I did feel bad this morning when I decapitated a butterfly in the lab, but didn't go low enough, and it continued to fly around in the trash can without a head until I fetched it and put it out of its "misery."