Wao, the technology is very impresive. The little wasps in Panama are studied by British Scientists with little radio tags... Incredible.
By Richard Alleyne
Last Updated: 2:30am GMT 26/01/2007
Scientists have tracked the movements of wasps by attaching tiny electronic “clocking-in cards” to their backs.
The minuscule radio tags, fitted to 422 Paper wasps in Panama, transmitted unique identity numbers to antennae placed at the entrances of 33 nests. Each time a wasp entered or left a nest, its movement was recorded. In effect the wasps were being made to “clock in and clock out” like factory or office workers. The scientists found that the wasps drifted between nests 31 times more frequently than was previously thought.
Insects behaved as workers at each nest they visited, helping to raise the young of their relatives. The research is reported in the journal Current Biology. Study leader Seirian Summer, from the Zoological Society of London, said: “We were very surprised to find out that 56% of the wasps drifted from nest to nest. “Like the workers in most eusocial insect societies, these drifting wasps do not reproduce themselves, but instead pass on their genes by helping raise relatives. “We were excited to discover that they did this by helping on several different nests, rather than just their home nest.”
By Richard Alleyne
Last Updated: 2:30am GMT 26/01/2007
Scientists have tracked the movements of wasps by attaching tiny electronic “clocking-in cards” to their backs.
The minuscule radio tags, fitted to 422 Paper wasps in Panama, transmitted unique identity numbers to antennae placed at the entrances of 33 nests. Each time a wasp entered or left a nest, its movement was recorded. In effect the wasps were being made to “clock in and clock out” like factory or office workers. The scientists found that the wasps drifted between nests 31 times more frequently than was previously thought.
Insects behaved as workers at each nest they visited, helping to raise the young of their relatives. The research is reported in the journal Current Biology. Study leader Seirian Summer, from the Zoological Society of London, said: “We were very surprised to find out that 56% of the wasps drifted from nest to nest. “Like the workers in most eusocial insect societies, these drifting wasps do not reproduce themselves, but instead pass on their genes by helping raise relatives. “We were excited to discover that they did this by helping on several different nests, rather than just their home nest.”
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