On a sandy beach, stranded above the tide line reposed a mussel shell with one end partly open and clearly very dead.

Suddenly, emerging from the narrow gap between each shell half came a wasp which then flew up the beach and back to its nest somewhere on the cliff. The insect had been chewing off pieces of rotting flesh from within the shell with which to feed hungry grubs.

The wasp would have originally found the shell by chance when quartering the beach for prey but once discovered, the rich source of protein was visited time and time again.

I decided to mount an experiment and moved the shell about three feet away from its original position.The wasp duly returned to the old location and was clearly disorientated, zig-zagging and buzzing around in ever expanding circles until, a minute later it re-discovered the shell, no doubt by scent and entered to continue its scavenging.

Upon emerging, it flew around for a couple of minutes committing to memory outstanding landmarks,or beachmarks such as stones or pieces of seaweed before zooming off with another mouthful of mussel. A few minutes later it was back and flew without hesitation to the new location.

Its incredible how such tiny creatures have the ability to memorise and apply their phenomenally acute homing instincts combined with scent to find their way around making our latest 'sat-nav' devices appear almost primitive by comparison.