"Face-Recognizing Wasps Show Higher Cooperation and Intelligence"
A study on paper wasps suggests that social interactions and the ability to recognize individuals may be linked to increased cognitive abilities and social cooperation. The research found that populations of wasps that recognized each other and cooperated more showed recent adaptations in brain areas associated with learning, memory, and vision. The study focused on two populations of paper wasps, with the northern population showing greater recognition of individuals and social cooperation compared to the southern population. The findings suggest that recognizing individuals may make wasps more selective and better able to manage their social interactions.