Wasps

All 9 species of wasps on WAnimals

Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.

Conservation status

Where they live

Recorded in 95 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:

Where to see them

Did you know…?

• It locates its victim through several centimetres of solid wood, detecting with its antennae the vibrations the victim makes as it gnaws and the smell of the fungi that go with it.

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• Its ovipositor, finer than a hair, drills through the wood for almost half an hour until it reaches the larva and lays an egg on it.

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• It has been deliberately introduced into New Zealand and Australia to control woodwasp pests in pine plantations.

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• It lives in annual colonies that die out almost entirely over winter; only the newly mated queens survive to found fresh colonies in spring.

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• It builds its nest by chewing wood and mixing it with saliva: it is genuine paper, and the technique is often cited as the natural forerunner of human papermaking.

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• For most of the summer it hunts insects to feed the larvae, and it is the larvae that give the workers a sugary droplet in return; when the brood runs out in August, the workers lose that reward, and that is when they invade café terraces in search of anything sweet.

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• When the larvae emerge through the caterpillar's skin, it is still alive and, instead of fleeing, spins silk over the cocoons of its parasites and defends them from predators until it dies: the wasp manipulates its behaviour even after leaving it.

Ecosystems