Insects can feel pain – and may need to get official ethical protection in farming and research, scientists say.

Researchers say they have found insects’ central nervous systems partly control “nociception” - the detection of damaging stimuli – which may be accompanied by a feeling of pain.

The RSPCA has campaigned against the eating of insects on ITV’s I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, saying that “portraying certain species as nasty or frightening or as objects that can be used purely for entertainment rather than sentient, living creatures sends out totally the wrong message”.