Wasps are shockingly smart, report says

As if wasps' large antennae and multiple stinging powers weren't frightening enough, let's throw in a new factor: They are surprisingly intelligent.

According to a new study from the University of Michigan, wasps are much smarter than humans expected. The insects are capable of using logical reasoning to determine unknown relationships based on inferences from known relationships, reports CNN. This means wasps can follow the line of reasoning that if "X is greater than Y, and Y is greater than Z, X is greater than Z," per CNN.

This capability, known as transitive inference, is found strongly in paper wasps but is absent in honeybees, which have a similarly-sized nervous system. The study found that paper wasps were able to quickly and accurately organize different pairs of colors.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"We're not saying that wasps used logical deduction to solve this problem, but they seem to use known relationships to make inferences about unknown relationships," said Elizabeth Tibbits, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Michigan.

Let's save the bees, but perhaps the wasps can fend for themselves.