Honeybees order numbers from left to right, a study claims

The finding suggests that mental number lines are innate, not learned. But the idea has critics

A honeybee on a white background with three black squares around it.

This honeybee is being trained to recognize the concept of the number three by drinking sugar water from a micropipette placed in the middle of a panel with three black squares.

Martin Giurfa

Like many humans, honeybees seem to prefer their numbers ordered from left to right.