If a creature is phenomenally conscious, it has the capacity to experience feelings such as pain or pleasure or hunger, but not necessarily more complex mental states such as self-awareness.

I suppose it depends on what one consider consciousness.

I don't believe a primitive response to stimuli is consciousness. It's reflexive response. There's no free will there. It does what it's evolved to do. Why did the bees push the balls? Probably driven to construct habitat or repel an unknown agent from the immediate proximity.

Looking out my window there are millions and millions of vellela velella coating the beach from California to Oregon.

Millions and millions of 2" jellyfish washed ashore by the wind and current.

I don't believe a 2" chunk of protoplasm has any awareness. It evolved to fill a niche in the food chain. It's protein.

At the same time millions of anchovies are being encircled by feeding humpback whale pods.

Maybe those 'chovies' have some conscious response to stimuli... like "Uh oh, mustn't be the guy on the edge of the school. I need lateral stripes on both sides of me or.... " Then it goes dark, and he and a few thousand of his siblings take a trip down a humpbacks gullet.

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