wasps
Sign in to saveA wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. The wasps do not constitute a clade, a complete natural group with a single ancestor, as bees and ants are deeply nested within the wasps, having evolved from wasp ancestors. Wasps that are members of the clade Aculeata can sting their prey.
AI overview
Wasps are insects with narrow waists belonging to the order Hymenoptera, distinguished from their relatives bees and ants, though bees and ants actually evolved from wasp ancestors. Many wasps can sting their prey, which helps them hunt and defend themselves.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
31 sectionsContents
- Taxonomy and phylogeny
- Paraphyletic grouping
- Fossils
- Diversity
- Sociality
- Social wasps
- Solitary wasps
- Biology
- Anatomy
- Diet
- Sex determination
- Inbreeding avoidance
- Ecology
- As pollinators
- As parasitoids
- As parasites
- As predators
- As models for mimics
- As prey
- Relationship with humans
- As pests
- In horticulture
- In sport
- In fashion
- In literature
- In military names
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Sources
- External links
A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. The wasps do not constitute a clade, a complete natural group with a single ancestor, as bees and ants are deeply nested within the wasps, having evolved from wasp ancestors. Wasps that are members of the clade Aculeata can sting their prey.
The most commonly known wasps, such as yellowjackets and hornets, are in the family Vespidae and are eusocial, living together in a nest with an egg-laying queen and non-reproducing workers. Eusociality is favoured by the unusual haplodiploid system of sex determination in Hymenoptera, as it makes sisters exceptionally closely related to each other. However, the majority of wasp species are solitary, with each adult female living and breeding independently. Females typically have an ovipositor for laying eggs in or near a food source for the larvae, though in the Aculeata the ovipositor is often modified instead into a sting used for defense or prey capture.