Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The largest social wasp is the Asian giant hornet, at up to 5 centimetres (2.0 in) in length. [11] The various tarantula hawk wasps are of a similar size [12] and can overpower a spider many times its own weight, and move it to its burrow, with a sting that is excruciatingly painful to humans. [13]
Hymenoptera is a large order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, [2] [3] in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. [4] Many of the species are parasitic. Females typically have a special ovipositor for inserting eggs into hosts or places that are otherwise ...
A tarantula hawk is a spider wasp (Pompilidae) that preys on tarantulas.Tarantula hawks belong to any of the many species in the genera Pepsis and Hemipepsis. They are one of the largest parasitoid wasps, using their sting to paralyze their prey before dragging it into a brood nest as living food; a single egg is laid on the prey, hatching to a larva which eats the still-living host.
The nests of most species are constructed out of mud, but polistines and vespines use plant fibers, chewed to form a sort of paper (also true of some stenogastrines). Many species are pollen vectors contributing to the pollination of several plants, being potential or even effective pollinators, [ 2 ] while others are notable predators of pest ...
Different species specialise in hosts from different insect orders, most often Lepidoptera, though some select beetles, flies, or bugs; the spider wasps exclusively attack spiders. Parasitoid wasp species differ in which host life-stage they attack: eggs, larvae, pupae, or adults.
Many of the insects collected by the workers are considered pest species, making the yellowjacket beneficial to agriculture. [4] Larvae, in return, secrete a sugary substance for workers to eat; this exchange is a form of trophallaxis. As insect sources of food diminish in late summer, larvae produce less for workers to eat.
Commonly known as cuckoo wasps or emerald wasps, the hymenopteran family Chrysididae is a very large cosmopolitan group (over 3000 described species) of parasitoid or kleptoparasitic wasps, often highly sculptured, [1] with brilliant metallic colors created by structural coloration. [2]
Female wasps paralyze large spiders and deposit them in burrows. The wasp lays a fertilized egg upon the spider; after hatching, the larva feeds on the living but paralyzed spider until maturing into a pupa that overwinters, and emerges as a winged adult next summer.