Wasp Story From Sabine

When Bob visited us in Schwabmuenchen (small town where we live) in the end of August and in early September 2006 we went out for a long walk every day. One shiny day with blue sky (after a rather dark and rainy week) we arrived after some kilometers at a nice restaurant near a lake. The first leaves were yellow, the sun was at the western balcony of the restaurant and it was nice to sit there outside on the warm wooden benches. We both ordered (as usually when our family is visiting this place) Apfelstrudel, a kind of apple pie – but different. Bob drank milkcoffee and I took tea with a lot of lemon. For a while we just sat there enjoying the warmth, the lake, the birds and the wonderful place. Suddenly a wasp fell into my hot tea. Bob took his teaspoon and tried to rescue the insect from drowning and sat it on the wooden table. After a short time it flew away. Then Bob took a pencil and an old receipt from the place next to ours and started to write a chain of genetic signs (XX, XO, XY and others?) on the backside of the sheet. I left school 25 years ago – this is when I had my last Biology lessons afterwards I studied (History and German)  but on Bob’s sheet I recognized the wasp queen, the workerwasps but I didn’t understand whats going on with the male ones and the queen… Bob gave some (english) explanations and ended “Here you can see: The queen is the mother but also the sister of the working wasps. This is what clever students always recognize at once.” Was it because of the warm sun shining on my head? because of the language? I wasn’t Bob’s clever student….