What is going on here Nerd Biologists? This Wasp just got its head taken off and seems to look for it before flying away.
Reddit user GOTTIREDOFMYNAME had a great point saying, “Not a biologist, but have some basic knowledge of bug anatomy that i kinda rememeber, insects dont have a “brain” in their head, they have a series of small brains called a ganglion that are in a few places in their body, so a separate brain would control one pair of legs, and another controls the wings, etc. so this wasp has managed to lose its head, but was not killed by the injury or other problems, which means that its body’s ganglions are intact and controlling the body with not much issue other than that theres no more signals coming from the eyes (and antennae and other head sensors). Not sure why it picked up the head, but for the most part this wasp will be totally fine to fly around until it eventually starves to death in the very near future.”
So far that’s the best explanation we’ve got for this sort of behavior. Watch the video and see for yourself.
