this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2026
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A Japanese boy noticed his butterflies seemed to recognize him. He spent two years making an experiment and proved that metamorphosis does not remove memories made during the caterpillar stage. (lemmy.world)
submitted 21 hours ago by time2lose@lemmy.world to c/interestingasfuck@lemmy.world
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[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 10 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

Summary: He took larvae (caterpillars), split them into two groups, and offered them sugar water and sugar water with lavender scent in it. The ones feeding on the lavender scent were then given a mild electric shock that make them vomit so they associated it with something bad. Then in their adult phase he offered the same two choices and the plain sugar water group went 50-50 to the choices whereas the shocked/lavender group went to the plain sugar water 80% of the time.

While looking into it I found references to studies on this dating back to at least 2008, studies on larval neural changes and fruit fly studies. They studied memory retention in moths also.

[–] Shayeta@feddit.org 1 points 1 hour ago

That is much more substantial than I expected it to be. Amazing!

[–] PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 9 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

We knew this though. Still ..never a bad idea to confirm with your own findings..
The fascinating thing is the caterpillar turns into goo in the pupa and still retains memories.

[–] SnorriSturluson@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 2 hours ago

I'm actually flabbergasted that insects (Or whatever butterflies are) having some kind of memory over a longer time span in the first place ..... So much for how much I know about animals....

[–] Colloidal@programming.dev 1 points 1 hour ago

No link to anything at all?

[–] CyberneticOwl@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

[–] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 7 points 7 hours ago

Feels like Butterflies are just self isekaiing caterpillars lol.

[–] BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (2 children)

Just image? No link to any article? WTF is this? 4Chan?

Fake and gay. User blocked.

[–] drath@lemmy.world 10 points 5 hours ago

Tineye is notoriously terrible. Try yandex

https://hugkum.sho.jp/747736

[–] peacepath@lemmy.world 9 points 6 hours ago

fake, of course... but gay?

[–] BigBoyShuanzee@aussie.zone 2 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (3 children)

It's always interesting every time this information gets reposted.

This kid is very smart and I wish him well.

But OP... I get to repost this next month..

I love the story, I'm just against people sharing a story that was shared on Reddit years ago.

I don't hate you OP, I just wish you could be back on Reddit.

I tried to trace back how Old the original story is.. All I had was months and months of Reddit, Instagram and Facebook reusing the story.

It's a good story but I don't think we still need to keep sharing the story.

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 hour ago

Not all of us are terminally online. I've never seen it before.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 5 hours ago

I've never heard this story 🤷🏻

[–] BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

This is a bot. The reverse image serach returned zero results. News is fake and this is AI astroturfing

[–] BigBoyShuanzee@aussie.zone 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Ah that makes so much more sense. Thankyou for the information

[–] time2lose@lemmy.world 4 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (2 children)

I m not a bot. People should stop with these false accusations. I think people accusing me are reddit agents that want no content on lemmy.

I repost from reddit yes

[–] notabot@piefed.social 1 points 36 minutes ago

I think people might assume you're a bot because your account is marked as a bot account. The constant reposting from reddit without adding any original thought just reinforces that appearance.

[–] SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.social 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

This you too?

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Is that accurate? I've had mods accuse me baselessly only to have another mod quote it as fact.

[–] SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.social 1 points 1 hour ago

They’re both calling people Reddit agents trying to decontent lemmy so you be the judge.

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 15 points 12 hours ago

I never stop loving science and the scientific method. One of the last things that always makes me happy.

[–] workerONE@lemmy.world 44 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (5 children)

He also did an experiment where he subjected butterflies to an unpleasant smell so they learned to avoid it. Not only did the butterflies avoid it but their offspring avoided it too. And those butterflies offspring, down several generations.

It's really groundbreaking science. Is it inherited memory? I don't think science has an explanation for how it could be possible.

[–] DespairSquid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

The same thing happens with rodents. They gave lady rodents a lemon smell (citruis isn’t pleasant for them) and it caused them to have a kink for lemon smell for like 3 generations. Crazy stuff.

As for an explanation, Epigenetics is where you want to look. Its a fairly new field, few dozen years old, and it studies methylation of DNA. Methylation (addition of a methyl group to the exposed end of DNA) or demethylation (removal of a methyl group) happens in response to experiences while alive, and changes how genes are expressed. Doesn't change the DNA itself, but because the methyl groups are chemically bonded to the DNA some of them carry through the reproductive process. This means some of those changes are passed down. The epigenome isnt passed down completely, about half-2/3 of it is reset between generations, iirc, but what is passed down can cause stuff like this “inherited memory”.

The epigenome is really neat, and as far as we know, everything with DNA has one. In humans, for just one example tjat we know of, it can impact fat storage. If a person lives through starvation conditions, the bodies of their offspring will prefer to pack on weight because they think they are being born into famine. When researchers studied descendants of major famines (starting with those born during the famine), they found that those methylation points didn't reset for 3-4 generations. Thats insane! Thats a hundred years! Its also why as identical twins age, they can start to look more and more different, and they -can- actually be DNA matched if you have the tools to look at the epigenome, because no two adults will have the same lived experiences.

[–] conartistpanda@lemmy.world 0 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

The "also" is unnecessary, that's the experiment he did.

[–] workerONE@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 2 minutes ago) (1 children)

It's not mentioned in the post. He didn't plan it as part of his original experiment. After his experiment was a success he noticed that his family all had migraines. He decided to try to test if memories could be inherited. It was a separate test the following year with new caterpillars.

Edit: typo

[–] conartistpanda@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

What was the original experiment again?

[–] workerONE@lemmy.world 1 points 13 minutes ago

Testing weather caterpillars retain memory when they metamorphicize into butterflies

[–] Zarobi@aussie.zone 3 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Makes me wonder where memories are stored. Maybe it's more complicated than we think it is

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 hours ago

Memories are stored in the balls

[–] Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Woooooosh

[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 16 hours ago

Imo, this was the coolest concept in the original Assassin's Creed. The idea that skills and memories were "embedded" into our DNA and could be unlocked.

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[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 100 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 hours ago

Am I Zhuang-zhi who was just dreaming I was a butterfly, or am I a butterfly who is now dreaming that I am Zhuang-zhi?

[–] Entertainmeonly@lemmy.blahaj.zone 49 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

When was this? Thought that got proven years ago.

[–] expatriado@lemmy.world 57 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)

you should run an experiment to prove memers forget previous news

[–] trashman@feddit.org 1 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Bullshit! Memes are the best news source out there! E.g. I just learned that there is this new Pokémon that is kind of slow.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 hours ago

A slow Pokémon? A slow Poké? Is he a Slowpoke?

[–] expatriado@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

already forgot the name of the Pokemon, interesting...

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