...Rather than just tending their home colonies, the worker wasps also buzzed into nearby relative-holding nests, helping raise the young, the team said.
The researchers believed the insects were boosting their chances of propagating their genes by nurturing relatives in multiple nests...
A "staggering number", 56% of the population, were drifting from nest to nest, Dr Sumner told the BBC News website, many more than previous studies had estimated.
After further observations, the ZSL team ruled out that the wasps were lost, confused by their tags or trying to lay eggs in their neighbours' nests in a bout of social parasitism.
Instead, it found the wasps were helping to raise their relatives' young.
Worker wasps do not reproduce themselves, but by raising relatives - who share their genes - they can pass on genes indirectly, explained Dr Sumner...
The researchers expect to find similar behaviour in other insect species.
