Post AGTc3NULpV7eZBSlUG by alexis@tilde.zone
 (DIR) More posts by alexis@tilde.zone
 (DIR) Post #AGTc3NULpV7eZBSlUG by alexis@tilde.zone
       2022-02-14T18:18:28Z
       
       0 likes, 2 repeats
       
       reposting another fav, this one from last year - a bald-faced yellowjacket (D. maculata) who along with her sisters had been feasting on fermented late-season figs in the tree in my side yard. she had a little too much to make it home that night, so decided to sleep it off on my front porch windowsill. it's interesting to watch a wasp sleep! you can tell their depth and rate of breathing by the pulsing of their abdomen, as you can by the motion of a mammal's ribcage, and it's plain from that and their occasional stirring and settling that they go through a cycle of sleep stages rather similar to oursdo wasps dream? we don't yet know how to ask, but i see no reason to doubt that they do; while unlike ours in many ways, their brains are complex to a degree many might find surprising, and by what i've seen of their behavior social wasps in particular are considerably smarter and more thoughtful than most humans give them credit for. if dreams are an epiphenomenon of a brain at rest, why assume wasps *don't* dream? and likewise, if dreams serve some purpose as yet unclear such as memory consolidation - well, wasps remember, too, as i learned when some P. metricus foragers began to use me as a landmark when navigating to a fall webworm nest at which we spent much time togetheri wonder what their dreams are like to them. are they like ours to us, or very different? quotidian, or esoteric, or both at times, or neither? perhaps i'll find out someday.