Overview

• Mother digger wasps can recall the locations of up to nine nests with a 1.5% error rate, even in visually sparse and crowded environments.
• The wasps feed their larvae in strict age order, dynamically adjusting schedules if an offspring dies or receives more food initially.
• Landmark-based navigation enables the wasps to reliably locate their nests, as experiments showed they do not rely on nest seal appearance or odor.
• Experimental prey-swapping revealed that mothers delay feeding larvae provided larger prey, reallocating time to other offspring.
• The findings suggest episodic-like memory in insects, highlighting sophisticated cognitive abilities in small-brained organisms and advancing our understanding of insect intelligence.