How does a digger wasp find its nest after hunting for honeybees?

To find her nest after hunting, a female digger wasp—such as the bee wolf (Philanthus triangulum)—relies on a process of instinctive learning to memorize the specific configuration of her surroundings.1

After crawling out of her burrow and closing the entrance, the wasp does not fly away immediately. Instead, she performs an elaborate departure flight, hovering over the nest site and flying in increasingly wider arcs to scan the area. During this flight, she memorizes the arrangement of local landmarks, such as trees, tufts of grass, and sticks. Because her genes cannot provide her with the specific layout of the environment around her nest, she must learn these visual cues to successfully pinpoint the location of her burrow upon her return.1