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February 02, 2007
Stirring up a Wasp’s Nest with RFID
-- Pushpa Sathish, Staff Writer
You know people are really passionate about what they do when they catch wasps, tag them with RFID, and then announce that the workers of each nest “visit” relatives in neighboring nests and help baby-sit their young ones. The study, headed by Dr. Seirian Sumner of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), proved that the wasps were trying to pass on their genes indirectly.
Worker wasps do not reproduce directly, but share genes with relatives, and by raising them, can pass on their genes and keep the line from dying out. The theory reinforces the age-old belief that all creatures are obsessed with the continuation of their bloodlines.
Ok, back to RFID – as many as 422 female workers (didn’t anyone get stung?) were fitted with the tags for the project. The workers maintain the nests, gather food and raise the young. Each nest had sensors that tracked the in-out movements of the wasps, which is how the ZSL team was able to figure out that 56 percent of the population was drifting from nest to nest.
The uses of RFID keep getting “curiouser and curiouser,” as Alice in Wonderland would say!
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