Recognizing a face depends on computing progressively higher-level abstractions, from pixel-like signals in the retina to facial features to unified whole faces. Despite progress in defining how faces are encoded by individual neurons, the circuits implementing these transformations remain unknown. One reason this circuitry has eluded us is the fact that its elements span nearly the entire large and complex brains of primates in which they have traditionally been studied. An alternative approach to tackling this problem would be to find a model organism that is evolutionarily constrained to use fewer neurons to accomplish a similar task. Like primates, northern paper wasps Polistes fuscatus have evolved facial recognition-like capabilities that they use for coordinating interactions in social groups. However, their brains are much smaller than the brains of even the smallest primates. My goal is to develop P. fuscatus into an electron microscopy-based connectomics model for studying its facial recognition circuits.