Wasp Painting: Do insects know each other’s faces?

A researcher who dabbed tiny stripes on the faces and abdomens of paper wasps says that she’s found the first evidence that the insects can recognize individuals by their markings.

LINEUP. Yellow stripes vary naturally in faces of paper wasps from around Ithaca, N.Y. Tibbetts

A paper wasp given a fancy paint job and returned to her colony met who-the-heck-are-you aggression, says Elizabeth Tibbetts of Cornell University.