Characteristics of common wasps and bees

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While observers can easily confuse common wasps and bees at a distance or without close observation, there are many different characteristics of large bees and wasps that can be used to identify them.

Contents

Characteristics

  Bees (Family: Apidae) Wasps (Family: Vespidae)
Name Western honey bee Bumblebee Paper wasp Yellowjacket Bald-faced hornet European hornet Asian giant hornet
Image Apis mellifera Female on white background.jpg Bombus fraternus, f, ga, baker, side (16429111109) -white background.jpg Polistes dominula MHNT.jpg European wasp white bg.jpg Bald-faced Hornet (Vespidae, Dolichovespula maculata (Linnaeus)) (32512319833) white background.jpg AD2009Aug08 Vespa crabro 01.jpg Male Vespa mandarinia - white background.jpg
ColorsAmber to brown translucent alternating with black stripes. [lower-alpha 1] Exact pattern and colouration varies depending on strain/breed.Yellow with black stripes, sometimes with olive, brown, orange-brown, red, [1] white, or as in Bombus pratorum , dark. [2] Dusty yellow to dark brown or blackBlack and opaque bright yellow stripesBlack and ivory white markingsBlack and dark body with yellow [lower-alpha 2] Black and gold body with orange
CoatFurry (short hair)Furry (long hair)Little or no hairSome hair
Size1.3 cm (0.51 in)2.5 cm (0.98 in) or more1.9 to 2.5 cm (0.75 to 0.98 in)1.3 cm (0.51 in)Up to 3.0 cm (1.2 in)Up to 3.5 cm (1.4 in)Up to 4.0 cm (1.6 in)
LegsNot generally visible while flying [lower-alpha 3] Two thin long legs are visible hanging down during flight. There are no pollen baskets.Legs not generally visible in flight. There are no pollen baskets.
BehaviorGentle [lower-alpha 4] GentleNot aggressiveAggressiveExtremely aggressive [3] [4] [5]
FoodPollen and nectar from flowersOther insectsOther insects, overripe fruit, sugary drinks, human food and food waste, meat [lower-alpha 5] Other insects.
StingBarbed. Kills bee; [lower-alpha 6] continues pumping.Smooth; can repeat. Retracts.
Sting Pain [6] 221.5–3 depending on species2 (Vespula pensylvanica)22.x [lower-alpha 7] [ citation needed ]4.0+ [7] [ failed verification ]
LightsNot attracted to lights at night unless nest is disturbed, or light is placed near hive, or bee is sick.Attracted to lights at night [8] [9]
Lives inLarge colonies of flat, wax-based honeycomb hanging vertically.Small cavities in the soil or sometime above ground in dark cavities. Commonly uses small rodent nests, may use bird cavity nests.Small umbrella-shaped papery combs hanging horizontally in protected spaces such as attics, eaves or soil cavities.Large paper nest, upside down pear shaped, hanging from branches and eaves; also barns and attics. Some yellowjacket species nest in the ground.Very large paper nest in hollow trees, sheltered positions. Has a brown, protective layer when the nest is in an unsheltered position. Also found in barns, attics, hollow walls and abandoned bee hives.

See also

Notes

  1. Though western honeybees mostly have distinguishable alternating stripes, some are mostly black.
  2. Differing color forms exist geographically.
  3. Light-colored pollen on the pollen baskets on a honeybee's rear legs can be visible.
  4. Domesticated bees have been selected over time for gentleness. There are several races of domesticated honey bees with varying characteristics of honey production, disease resistance and gentleness.
  5. Yellowjackets are carnivorous during the brood rearing part of the season. They feed insects to their brood, and obtain the sugar for their flight-muscle energy mostly from secretions of the brood. During this time they can be attracted to traps baited with meat or fish. Near the end of summer, when brood rearing ceases and this sugar source is no longer available, yellow jackets become frantic for sugar, and can be baited with sugar-based baits. They are also much more likely to visit fall flowers for nectar than they are earlier in the season.
  6. The barbed stinger evolved as a colony defense against invertebrates; the invariable outcome of stinging a mammal or bird is that the stinger becomes lodged in the victim's skin and tears free from the honey bee's body, leading to her death within minutes. As such, there is rarely any evolutionary advantage for a bee to sting a mammal to defend itself as an individual; honey bees will generally only sting when the hive is directly threatened and honey bees found in the field or on a flower will rarely sting.
  7. Mainly European hornet. Other species may be more aggressive and have a more toxic sting.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bee</span> Clade of insects

Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea. They are presently considered a clade, called Anthophila. There are over 16,000 known species of bees in seven recognized biological families. Some species – including honey bees, bumblebees, and stingless bees – live socially in colonies while most species (>90%) – including mason bees, carpenter bees, leafcutter bees, and sweat bees – are solitary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Honey bee</span> Colonial flying insect of genus Apis

A honey bee is a eusocial flying insect within the genus Apis of the bee clade, all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosmopolitan distribution of honey bees, introducing multiple subspecies into South America, North America, and Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bumblebee</span> Genus of insect

A bumblebee is any of over 250 species in the genus Bombus, part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related genera are known from fossils. They are found primarily in higher altitudes or latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, although they are also found in South America, where a few lowland tropical species have been identified. European bumblebees have also been introduced to New Zealand and Tasmania. Female bumblebees can sting repeatedly, but generally ignore humans and other animals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hornet</span> Genus of eusocial wasp

Hornets are the largest of the eusocial wasps, and are similar in appearance to their close relatives yellowjackets. Some species can reach up to 5.5 cm (2.2 in) in length. They are distinguished from other vespine wasps by the relatively large top margin of the head. Worldwide, 22 species of Vespa are recognized. Most species only occur in the tropics of Asia, though the European hornet, is widely distributed throughout Europe, Russia, North America, and north-eastern Asia. Wasps native to North America in the genus Dolichovespula are commonly referred to as hornets, but are actually yellowjackets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yellowjacket</span> Common name for two genera of wasps

Yellowjacket or yellow jacket is the common name in North America for predatory social wasps of the genera Vespula and Dolichovespula. Members of these genera are known simply as "wasps" in other English-speaking countries. Most of these are black and yellow like the eastern yellowjacket and the aerial yellowjacket ; some are black and white like the bald-faced hornet. Some have an abdomen with a red background color instead of black. They can be identified by their distinctive markings, their occurrence only in colonies, and a characteristic, rapid, side-to-side flight pattern prior to landing. All females are capable of stinging. Yellowjackets are important predators of pest insects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paper wasp</span> Vespid wasps that gather fibers from dead wood and plant stems

Paper wasps are vespid wasps that gather fibers from dead wood and plant stems, which they mix with saliva, and use to construct nests made of gray or brown papery material. Some types of paper wasps are also sometimes called umbrella wasps, due to the distinctive design of their nests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apocrita</span> Suborder of insects containing wasps, bees, and ants

Apocrita is a suborder of insects in the order Hymenoptera. It includes wasps, bees, and ants, and consists of many families. It contains the most advanced hymenopterans and is distinguished from Symphyta by the narrow "waist" (petiole) formed between the first two segments of the actual abdomen; the first abdominal segment is fused to the thorax, and is called the propodeum. Therefore, it is general practice, when discussing the body of an apocritan in a technical sense, to refer to the mesosoma and metasoma rather than the "thorax" and "abdomen", respectively. The evolution of a constricted waist was an important adaption for the parasitoid lifestyle of the ancestral apocritan, allowing more maneuverability of the female's ovipositor. The ovipositor either extends freely or is retracted, and may be developed into a stinger for both defense and paralyzing prey. Larvae are legless and blind, and either feed inside a host or in a nest cell provisioned by their mothers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stinger</span> Sharp organ found in various animals capable of injecting venom

A stinger is a sharp organ found in various animals capable of injecting venom, usually by piercing the epidermis of another animal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Worker bee</span> Caste of honey bee

A worker bee is any female (eusocial) bee that lacks the full reproductive capacity of the colony's queen bee; under most circumstances, this is correlated to an increase in certain non-reproductive activities relative to a queen. While worker bees occur in all eusocial bee species, the term is rarely used for any bees other than honey bees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asian giant hornet</span> Predatory hornet, largest in the world

The Asian giant hornet or northern giant hornet, including the color form referred to as the Japanese giant hornet, is the world's largest hornet. It is native to temperate and tropical East Asia, South Asia, Mainland Southeast Asia, and parts of the Russian Far East. It was also found in the Pacific Northwest of North America in late 2019 with a few more additional sightings in 2020, and nests found in 2021, prompting concern that it could become an invasive species. However, by the end of the season in November 2022, there were no confirmed sightings in North America at all, suggesting the wasps may have been eradicated in that region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schmidt sting pain index</span> Pain scale for insect stings

The Schmidt sting pain index is a pain scale rating the relative pain caused by different hymenopteran stings. It is mainly the work of Justin O. Schmidt, a former entomologist at the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Arizona. Schmidt published a number of works on the subject, and claimed to have been stung by the majority of stinging Hymenoptera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bee sting</span> Puncture wound caused by a bees stinger

A bee sting is the wound and pain caused by the stinger of a female bee puncturing skin. Bee stings differ from insect bites, with the venom of stinging insects having considerable chemical variation. The reaction of a person to a bee sting may vary according to the bee species. While bee stinger venom is slightly acidic and causes only mild pain in most people, allergic reactions may occur in people with allergies to venom components.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European beewolf</span> Species of wasp

The European beewolf, also known as the bee-killer wasp or the bee-eating philanthus, is a solitary wasp that lives in the Western Palearctic and Afrotropics. Although the adults of the species are herbivores, the species derives its name from the behaviour of the inseminated females, who hunt Western honey bees. The female places several of its paralysed prey together with an egg in a small underground chamber, to serve as food for the wasp larvae. All members of the genus Philanthus hunt various species of bees, but P. triangulum is apparently the only one that specialises in Western honey bees.

<i>Apis dorsata</i> Species of insect

Apis dorsata, the rock bee or giant honey bee, is a honey bee of South and Southeast Asia. They are typically around 17–20 mm (0.7–0.8 in) long and nests are mainly built in exposed places far off the ground, like on tree limbs, under cliff overhangs, and under buildings. These social bees are known for their aggressive defense strategies and vicious behavior when disturbed. Though not domesticated, indigenous peoples have traditionally used this species as a source of honey and beeswax, a practice known as honey hunting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western honey bee</span> European honey bee

The western honey bee or European honey bee is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bees worldwide. The genus name Apis is Latin for "bee", and mellifera is the Latin for "honey-bearing" or "honey carrying", referring to the species' production of honey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wasp</span> Clade of insects

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.

<i>Apis cerana</i> Species of insect

Apis cerana, the eastern honey bee, Asiatic honey bee or Asian honey bee, is a species of honey bee native to South, Southeast and East Asia. This species is the sister species of Apis koschevnikovi and both are in the same subgenus as the western (European) honey bee, Apis mellifera. A. cerana is known to live sympatrically along with Apis koschevnikovi within the same geographic location. Apis cerana colonies are known for building nests consisting of multiple combs in cavities containing a small entrance, presumably for defense against invasion by individuals of another nest. The diet of this honey bee species consists mostly of pollen and nectar, or honey. Moreover, Apis cerana is known for its highly social behavior, reflective of its classification as a type of honey bee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthropod bites and stings</span> Medical condition

Many species of arthropods can bite or sting human beings. These bites and stings generally occur as a defense mechanism or during normal arthropod feeding. While most cases cause self-limited irritation, medically relevant complications include envenomation, allergic reactions, and transmission of vector-borne diseases.

<i>Monobia quadridens</i> Species of wasp

Monobia quadridens, also known as the four-toothed mason wasp, is a species of solitary potter wasp found in North America. It grows to a wingspan of 18 mm (0.71 in), and feeds on small caterpillars and pollen. Two generations occur per year, with one generation overwintering as pupae.

<i>Bombus fervidus</i> Species of bee

Bombus fervidus, the golden northern bumble bee or yellow bumblebee, is a species of bumblebee native to North America. It has a yellow-colored abdomen and thorax. Its range includes the North American continent, excluding much of the southern United States, Alaska, and the northern parts of Canada. It is common in cities and farmland, with populations concentrated in the Northeastern part of the United States. It is similar in color and range to its sibling species, Bombus californicus, though sometimes also confused with the American bumblebee or black and gold bumblebee. It has complex behavioral traits, which includes a coordinated nest defense to ward off predators. B. fervidus is an important pollinator, so recent population decline is a particular concern.

References

  1. "Bumble Bees". Natural History Museum.
  2. Benton, Ted (2006). "Chapter 9: The British Species". Bumblebees. London, UK: HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 338–342. ISBN   0007174519
  3. Ross, Piper (2007). Extraordinary Animals: An Encyclopedia of Curious and Unusual Animals. pp. 9–11. ISBN   978-0-313-33922-6.
  4. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/10/131004-giant-hornet-insects-attacks-china-animals-science/ [ dead link ]
  5. Park, Madison; Zhang, Dayu; Landau, Elizabeth (4 October 2013). "Deadly giant hornets kill 42 people in China". CNN .
  6. Unless otherwise noted, sting pains are from The sting of the Wild by Justin O. Schmidt. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2006, pp.226-229
  7. "Vespa mandarinia Smith, 1852".
  8. "Non-Honey Bee Stinging Insects in North Carolina". NC State Extension Publications. NC State University. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  9. Lawrence, Neil. "Pest Control Advice - Wasps". www.oxford.gov.uk. Oxford City Council. Retrieved 3 September 2018.

Further reading