Paper wasps got their name from the paper-like materials they use to make their nests. They are stinging wasps but only do so when they feel their colony is threatened. However, with their aggressiveness and stinging, it is best that residents should call experts to help when removing them from houses.
On the other hand, when these wasps fight their kind, they observe their rivals first before fighting to assess their potential opponent's abilities before engaging in combat themselves, according to a new study.
Researchers found out this behavior when they built a fighting arena wherein two wasps were engaged in a fight while another couple observed them from the outside.
These bystander wasps were then paired to one insect they had just observed or a fighter they saw before.
The researchers found that spectator wasps were more aggressive when paired with an individual who was a victim of much previous aggression and those who initiated very little aggression. These findings suggest that even insects with small brains can learn to remember and make conclusions about others.
Wasps Eavesdrop to Learn the Abilities of Potential Rivals
The University of Michigan experimented because they wonder if small-brained creatures, such as the paper wasps, can use social eavesdropping to assess their potential rivals' fighting skills.
"It is surprising that wasps can observe and remember a complex network of social interactions between individuals without directly interacting with them," said biologist Elizabeth Tibbetts of the University of Michigan.
It was previously believed that complex social relationships favor the evolution of large brains and increased social intelligence. But insects such as the paper wasps have small brains, Tibbetts added.
In their experiment, the team constructed a fighting arena where two wasps combat each other. Meanwhile, outside of that arena is another two wasps who are watching the ongoing fight.
They recorded all the trials and gave each insect a score on their aggressiveness during the combat. They received a score for biting, mounting, grappling, and stinging their opponent. More so, the researchers recorded the time when the observer wasps were tracking the fighters.
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The study published in Current biology reads: "Observers were scored as visually tracking fighters when fighters were positioned within the observer's field of vision, in the ¾ of the arena closest to the observers, and the observers followed the movement of the fighters with their head and/or antennae."
They found that observer wasps often appear to be paying attention to the fighters in the arena as they also move to keep the fighters in their visual field, or move their antennae and head toward their fighters.
The next part of their study involved switching the bystanders so that the researchers can compare the behavior of the insects.
Wasps Are More Aggressive Against Those Victims of Aggression
The results of their experiment suggest that wasps that observed a fight were more aggressive with an opponent that was once a victim of aggression in a previous battle and also a wasp who initiated very little aggression in the last fight.
Moreover, the researchers compared the experimental and control trials to reject non-eavesdropping explanations for the observations. This includes the priming and winner/loser effects.
Tibbetts said that the experiment showed that wasps use social eavesdropping, and they use the information they gathered to modulate subsequent behavior.
