Wasps fly backwards to find their way home

[Still Waters]

When sand wasps leave home in the morning they capture snapshots of the landscape around their nest to make sure they can find their way back later, a study using high-speed video has found.

The field study, published today in the journal Current Biology, is the first to reconstruct what a homing insect in the field sees, co-author Professor Jochen Zeil from the Australian National University's Research School of Biology said.

"They look back at the nest from the view point of their future return," he said.

http://www.abc.net.a...ay-home/7160082

[HandsomeGorilla]

I don't give a damn what wasps do or how they fly, just stay the hell away from me.

[Silver Surfer]

What an enlightened individual.

[pallidin]

Great read... I sometimes wondered how they are able to find their "home" doing what they do to feed and such.

Though the study is specific to the "sand wasp" I wonder if other wasps, bees, or flying insects with "nests" do the same.

Not sure, maybe use different methods.

I was, however, impressed with the correlation of humans "looking back at their hotel room as they are leaving" in order to establish some sort of basic visual return map.

[bubblykiss]

Sounds like me retracing my steps through sober to drunk, ass first into chaos.

[Galactic Goatman]

See where you have been before you even get there.

[highdesert50]

There is much to be said with regards to hindsight ...