A paper wasp hanging off a goldenrod bloom
Shutterstock / Paul Reeves Images
Researchers have pinpointed the cluster of cells in wasp brains that permits them to differentiate the faces of their wasp friends. These neurons appear to be strikingly just like face-recognition cells within the brains of primates, together with people.
“We now have this convergent evolution between these actually, actually 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 recognized to…