A new study, co-authored by Dr William Foster and colleagues at the University of Exeter, published in the journal Current Biology, shows that while female wasps might have ‘miniature brains’, they have excellent memories when it comes to feeding their young.
The research, conducted on heathland in Surrey, shows that digger wasps use integrated memories to schedule offspring care. As well as remembering the locations of up to 9 separate nests, they feed offspring in order of age, reducing the risk of starvation. Wasps also delay feeding offspring that were given more food previously, enabling new offspring to be initiated earlier.
Lead author, Prof Jeremy Field, University of Exeter, told BBC News, ‘We tend to think that something so small couldn't do something so complex.
‘In fact, they can remember where and when they have fed their young and what they fed them in a way that would be taxing even to human brains.’
Read the paper: Jeremy Field, Charlie Savill, William A. Foster, Memory and the scheduling of parental care in an insect population in the wild, Current Biology, 2025 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.045.
Image: picture by M.Blosch