Dec 05 2011

Mary’s Monday Metazoan: We are all individuals!

Categories:

Organisms

by PZ Myers

It seems wasps can recognize wasp faces. I’ll have to stop making my speciesist remark that they all look alike to me.

(Also on Sb)

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29 comments

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1

Glen Davidson

5 December 2011 at 3:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

All look the same? Probably not.

All wasp faces look nasty? Spot on.

Glen Davidson
2

Brownian

5 December 2011 at 3:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

It seems wasps can recognize wasp faces.

More than that, they react violently when others attempt to rise above their perceived station, as judged by their colouring alone.

What’s even weirder: the insects that share their name do the same thing.
3

a3kr0n

5 December 2011 at 3:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Metazoan wasps? Shit just changes too fast for me to keep up with anymore. [sigh]
4

EvoMonkey

5 December 2011 at 3:37 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Herb, is that you in the upper right corner! Why are you looking at me with your jaws flared out like that?

Nooooooo!
5

Richard Smith

5 December 2011 at 3:42 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I always thought the Brady Bunch was a very WASP-ish family, but I never realized just to what extent…
6

feralboy12

5 December 2011 at 3:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

These creatures don’t resemble any White Anglo-Saxon Protestants I’ve ever seen. What are you trying to pull here?
Killed By Fish
7

burtclothier

5 December 2011 at 3:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I’m not.
8

Ouigui

5 December 2011 at 3:58 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Dammit, burtclothier beat me to it. It’s about time to watch that movie again.
9

Sili

5 December 2011 at 4:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Even I can tell these wasps apart. WASPs not so much. (Nor WASMs.)
10

Physicalist

5 December 2011 at 4:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Burtclothier beat me to it. But at least I’ve got the link.
11

ChasCPeterson

5 December 2011 at 4:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Metazoan wasps? Shit just changes too fast for me to keep up with anymore.

?
Are youy joking? (if so I don’t get it.)
Metazoan = animal
wasps definitely count.
12

fredbloggs

5 December 2011 at 4:42 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Variation! What would evolution be without it?
13

matthewhowery

5 December 2011 at 5:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

PZ, I’m not sure where this puts me in your legions of fans, but I just wanted to share that my favorite aspect of your blogs is not the aggressive atheism (which I love), nor the blatant disdain for lack of critical thinking and education (which I love), or the almost fanatical devotion to the pop -er, I mean, science (which I love).

No. As a student of philosophy, I can state categorically that the best aspect of your blog is the constant Monty Python references. :)

Cheers!

P.S. Can I join your group? -I really hate the Romans!
14

evodevo

5 December 2011 at 5:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I’ve been dealing personally with Polistes for 30 years in and around my house, barn, outbuildings, cars, equipment, etc.etc. They were not very aggressive in the first place, and I think I have exerted selection pressure on them to boot. Most of them just sit on the nest and look at me now, without attacking. You have to really knock them around before they respond. I don’t know if they can recognize MY face, but they can see pretty well ! I have no doubt they can recognize each other’s faces.
15

Sandiseattle

5 December 2011 at 6:07 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Third row middle, officer, I’d swear it. :-)
16

Sean Boyd

5 December 2011 at 6:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

#2 Brownian,

Well played. That is a win!
17

a3kr0n

5 December 2011 at 7:09 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

ChasCPeterson #11 – I didn’t get it either. My brain farted, then blew up.
My bad.
18

rob

5 December 2011 at 10:01 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Unrelated question. Is Panda’s Thumb down?

I have not been able to connecting in 12 hours from work or home.
19

Aquaria

5 December 2011 at 10:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

:::bursts into tears and runs screaming from the room::::

I was attacked by a colony of wasps when I was four. My grandparents thought I was overreacting when I started screaming and gasping for air after they thought they’d calmed me down. I think they got the hint when I passed out from not being able to breathe.

I understand my 68-year-old grandfather had me in the car and in the emergency room 7 miles away in three minutes flat after I dropped. Thankfully, all but .3 miles of it was on a state highway with a 70 mph speed limit. Not that anyone would have stopped him. Every cop in that area knew that if he was driving more than 35, it was important.
20

autumn

5 December 2011 at 11:50 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Never have I been happier to have seen the Electric Company episode that explained how exoskeletons put a limit on the size of insects.
21

Outrage Zombie

6 December 2011 at 1:30 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Don’t feel too bad, PZ. If it weren’t for the huge difference in size, I’m sure we’d all recognize individual wasps just fine right before we ran for our lives.
22

radpumpkin

6 December 2011 at 3:49 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Claiming all wasps look alike may be speciesist, but there is still the matter of the only rational thing that can be said when confronted with that many bloody wasps at once:
KILL THEM WITH FIRE!!!1!111!!!!1!111!!!11111!!!
23

mikelaing

6 December 2011 at 7:24 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

The middle one on the left is kind of cute!
24

Richard Smith

6 December 2011 at 10:00 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

@mikelaing (#23):

The middle one on the left is kind of cute!

That would be Jan, right?
25

NelC

6 December 2011 at 11:54 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

A random thought just occurred to me: how do insects focus their vision? Do they focus or is the focus of the elements of their compound eyes fixed?
26

spamamander, hellmart survivor

6 December 2011 at 12:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

@ Autumn

World’s Largest Insect Nom Nom Noms a Carrot

That’s still WAY too effing big.
27

spamamander, hellmart survivor

6 December 2011 at 12:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Gah borked the link.

here
28

mikelaing

6 December 2011 at 1:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

#Richard Smith(24) says:

That would be Jan, right?

Sigh…. She doesn’t even know I’m alive.

Actually, I’m not sure she still is, either. I’ll have to give her a buzz.
29

orchidgrowinman

8 December 2011 at 3:20 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

evodevo,

See my comment on the Other Pharyngula; these Polistes make great pets! (I describe how I “tame” them.)

The European P. dominulus is a mutualist with humans: I have seen hoop-houses for growing tomatoes, peppers and the like (for extending the season) with dozens of colonies cheek-by-jowl as it were, and the farmers paid them no mind. I’ll bet caterpillars were no problem there!

Because of that relationship, these are surprizingly docile to people(or is it the other way ’round?): I would not be surprized that they at least recognize humans vs. other megafauna. Mine certainly recognized HANDS.