Do ants feel pain?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

Poll question: Do ants feel pain?

Let's say you step on an ant and crush most of its body, but the head is still alive. Does it feel pain?

[Character Assassin]

1. Who cares? I've eaten them in tacos in Mexico City many times

And they taste great.

Crunchy, sweet, delicious and nutricious.

End.

[mike_c]

2. this is an interesting question....

The short answer is "probably not," at least in the sense that we understand pain. Insect peripheral nervous systems don't possess anything like the pain receptors that vertebrates have, e.g. nociceptors. From personal experience, I've seen cultured insects (including ants) horribly injured, e.g. losing limbs or entire body regions, but continuing their "normal" behaviors as though they were either unaware of the injury or were not particularly encumbered by it.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

3. So - all vertebrates feel pain?

[mike_c]

6. not necessarily....

Fish also lack nociceptors, and I think reptiles and amphibians do too, but I'm an entomologist and my vertebrate physiology is a bit murky these days. The classic example I remember from grad school physiology is "imagine you have a metal hook embedded in your lower jaw and lip-- what do you do? Pull against it with all your might?"

[bigwillq]

4. I think to a degree they do

But like other insects, plant and fish life, I think they can grow back limbs.

[mike_c]

7. adult insects do not grow back limbs....

And the things you recognize as ants are adults-- the larvae are limbless.

on edit: plants have a modular construction that is completely different from nearly every animal's. Think of it this way-- you can remove a plant's apical meristem-- prune it-- and initiate production of new limbs. There's nothing even remotely comparable among animals.

double edit: notwithstanding some echinoderm regeneration....

[ott]

5. I think unless an animal is clumsy, drunk, or suicidal

It will avoid walking into fire.

Seems like that avoidance is a response to pain.

[mike_c]

8. there are other indicators of physiologic stress than pain....

And MANY insects fly directly into fire or other heat sources because the light taps into their 3D orientation systems in the dark. They utterly ignore the heat as they circle closer....

[JPace]

9. Do ants feel pain?

I went straight to the expert...a tiny ant in my
yard and asked him directly, problem is his voice
is so faint I can't hear his answer.

[ashling]

10. If you stepped on an ant, and crushed most of its body, and the

head was still alive,

how would you know?

:shrug: