Wasps are the first insects to display a type of reasoning

Scientists have discovered a method to counter the threat of wasp, which we once thought to be a trait that we only see in humans.

Insects also use a form of reasoning known as transitive inference, according to which known relationships are used to infer information about unknown relationships.

An example of this reasoning is if A is greater than B and B is greater than C, then A is greater than C – something that humans can deduce.

Experiments revealed that because of the tiny nervous system of honey bees, they did not have the cognitive ability of wasps.

The difference could indicate that smart insects could succeed where bees do not.

Elizabeth Tibbetts, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Michigan, believes that wasps perform better than bees because they display types of complex social behavior that are not found in the bees.

Professor Tibbetts tested whether two common species of paper wasps, Polistes dominula and Polistes metricus, could solve a problem of transitive inference.

The wasps learned a hierarchy of five colors that could be labeled A, B, C, D, and E.

Two by two, the wasps went to the colors and learned that by receiving one from them, they would receive a slight electric shock.

When A and B were presented together, B would give the shock. But when the wasps were shown B and C, it's C that gave the shock.

On C and D, it was D, and on D and E, it was E that caused a shock.

Professor Tibbetts told the Times, "I thought wasps could be confused, just like bees.

"But they had no trouble understanding that a particular color was safe in some situations and not safe in others."

The results are published today in the journal Biology Letters, published by the Royal Society.