Face recognition in golden paper wasps

Science/AAAS

According to a work published on December 1st on  Science, the golden paper wasp can recognize the faces of other members of its species. Scientists have long debated whether mental abilities such as face recognition are evolutionary adaptations or simply skills learned over an organism’s lifetime. Michael Sheehan, a graduate student in Tibbetts' lab at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, explored this question by comparing two species of wasp.


Scientist compared  P. fuscatus face-recognition abilities with a closely related species, the faces of P. fuscatus have clearly variable features, and the organism’s social structure depends on individuals being able to tell one another apart to avoid fights. 

The findings suggest that, in P. fuscatus, “there must have been some tweaking of pattern-recognition circuitry specifically for the purpose of recognizing conspecific faces, because they are particularly good at that”. 

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