Some wasps have evolved to recognize and remember faces

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/31/some-wasps-have-evolved-to-rec.html

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They can recognize other wasps, but their names are all Asshole.

“Hey, Asshole, how ya doing?”
“Asshole! Long time no see!”
“Hi! We’ve never met. My name is Asshole.”

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Hey, every wasp in the world…look at this please…

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This is a rather old finding (2011). Wasps aren’t the only ones with this ability, honey bees are able to do the same and also they can pick up individual human faces :slight_smile:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/face-recognition-honeybees/

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New word

cofoundresses (from the Wiki link).

Got to admire wasps.

this is why i try to be nice to wasps, bees, and other similar things.

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Honey bees can remember human faces as well as most people (~90% accuracy between pictures of generic white guys). There is lots of work on foraging insects that show that the transition to foraging (both evo and devo transitions) produce dramatic increase in the mushroom bodies (insect cognitive brain area) and abilities for visual memory. When your survival depends on remembering precisely where food is based on visual cues, you need to be able to remember what anything look like.

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and always corvids

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oh definitely. i’d love to actually have a couple recognize me and hang out in my yard. of course, i say that NOW, but not sure i’d want more than one or two and i’d probably end up with a whole murder of 'em.

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This is such weird coincidence, I was just thinking earlier that something the world definitely needed was smarter wasps.

They remember bad behaviour well; guy I work with chases crows and gulls off regularly, and it’s always "WHY do they SHIT on my car all the time! " . I tell him, but he won’t listen. As for good behaviour; many years ago I sheltered a young crow in my back yard after it probably left the nest too soon…the other crows stuck around, but it wouldn’t fly for a couple days. Thereafter, and for years, I got subtle assistance from them (for instance, if there were a prowler in my yard they’d make a fuss). A quid pro crow, if you will

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LOVE. IT.

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Thank you for clarifying that. I was seriously confused.

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Too much man. A quid is too much. Pro crow? Never.
Five’ll get you ten.

What if, what if, they all know who we are? Some of you guys are gonna be in trouble in the afterlife.

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