Radio tags track wasp behaviour

Wasps fitted with minuscule radio tags have helped scientists shed light on the insects' behaviour.

Rather than just tending their home colonies, the worker wasps also buzzed into nearby relative-holding nests, helping raise the young, the team said.

The researchers believed the insects were boosting their chances of propagating their genes by nurturing relatives in multiple nests.

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) study is published in Current Biology.

"Nest drifting, which is where individual insects move between different nests, has been described in a few different species of social insects, but it has always been a puzzle as to why they have done this," explained lead author Seirian Sumner of ZSL.

"It has also been very difficult to quantify - the standard way is to mark the wasps with paint and then carry out nest censuses - so we developed a new method."
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