A paper wasp hanging off a goldenrod bloom
Shutterstock / Paul Reeves Pictures
Researchers have pinpointed the cluster of cells in wasp brains that enables them to differentiate the faces of their wasp friends. These neurons appear to be strikingly much like face-recognition cells within the brains of primates, together with people.
“We have this convergent evolution between these really, really distant species,” says Michael Sheehan at Cornell College in New York. He and his colleagues studied northern paper wasps (Polistes fuscatus), which every have subtly distinctive color markings on their faces. They’re identified to…
