Resumen de Wasps drum to tell others of food
Wasps literally drum up interest in food, banging their abdomens against the walls of their nest to inform their nestmates that food is available. Benjamin Taylor at the City University of New York and his colleagues took six colonies of German yellowjacket wasps (Vespula germanica) and housed them in artificial nests. The wasps were allowed to freely forage for a day, but the next day they were shut in and given only water, or a sucrose solution. On the third day, the exit was opened again. Drumming declined when the wasps were given only water, suggesting it was not a signal of hunger. The wasps drummed more when sucrose was offered, and the levels of drumming consistently returned to a baseline level on the third day. This suggests that the wasps drum to alert each other to the presence of food.
