Wasps can grasp abstract concepts such as 'same' and 'different'

Wasps can tell the difference between pairs of stimuli that are the same or different, a task that requires the use of abstract concepts that only a small group of animals are known to grasp. The ability to use abstract concepts – features that depend on the relationships between stimuli rather than features of the stimuli themselves – is thought to be a key part of more complex cognitive abilities. It has only been demonstrated in a relatively small group of animals, including humans, some birds, dolphins and one invertebrate, the honeybee. Now, Elizabeth Tibbetts at the University of Michigan and her colleagues have shown that paper wasps (Polistes fuscatus) can also differentiate between same and different in a task where they were trained to recognise these concepts. Tibbetts and her team placed wasps in a small box and trained them with either alike or different stimuli, such as two pictures of wasp faces, colours or odours.