The wasp has a narrow waist. It is so narrow that it looks as if it is hardly there. Why does a wasp have such a small waist?
A waist is the middle part of an animal’s body. In an insect, the waist is between the thorax (chest) and the abdomen (stomach).
The wasp waist is called a petiole.
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The European Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa iris) is an insect in the Apidae family of carpenter bees.
The European Carpenter Bee is all black with a shiny abdomen. It is not a Bumblebee, because a Bumblebee has a hairy body. It has short mouthparts.Its wings are translucent. The male does not have a stinger. The female has a stinger, but she is not aggressive.
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The Dark-Edged Bee Fly (Bombylius major) is an insect in the Bombyliidae family of flies. It is also known as the Large Bee Fly or the Large Humblefly.
The Dark-Edged Bee Fly is the similar size and shape of a Bumblebee (Bombus sp.), but its body is more triangular. It is dark-coloured with a brown hairy thorax and abdomen. It has translucent wings with a dark-brown edge. When it rests, its wings are spread out. Bumblebees have two pairs of wings, but the Dark-Edged Bee Fly has only one pair of wngs.
Its long, grey proboscis (nose) looks like a stinger or sword on the top of its head. Its proboscis is always straight (like a unicorn horn) because it cannot curl or retract it. Butterflies, for example, can roll up their proboscis. The Dark-Edged Bee Fly has long legs. It has short antennae. Unlike a bee, it does not have a stinger.
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The Sabre Wasp (Rhyssa persuasoria) is an insect in the Ichneumonidae family of wasps. It is also known as the Giant Ichneumon Wasp or the Persuasive Burglar.
The Sabre Wasp has a thin black body with several whitish spots on its head, thorax, and abdomen. It has reddish legs. Its antennae are long and thin. It has two pairs of wings. The female has a very long stinger and ovipositor, which is used to lay eggs. The male does not have a stinger or an ovipositor.
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The Digger Wasp (Nysson spinosus) is an insect in the Crabronidae family of digger wasps, sand wasps, and beewolves. It is a crabronid.
The Digger Wasp has a smooth, black, segmented body with greyish-brown wings. It has thin yellow stripes on its body. Its legs, called tarsi, are yellow. Its antennae are long, thick, and black. Its head is black with large compound eyes. The female has a smooth barbless stinger that can repeatedly sting an animal.
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The Kenyan Stingless Honey Bee (Meliponula ferruginea) is an insect in the Apidae family of honey bees.
The Kenyan Stingless Honey Bee is small. It has a brown head, thorax (chest), and abdomen. It has six legs. It does have a stinger on its tail, but it is so small that it is not noticeable, and it does not sting in defence. Its wings are transparent. It has large eyes.
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The Hornet-Mimic Hoverfly (Volucella zonaria) is an insect in the Syrphidae family. It is also called the Belted Hoverfly or the Zoned Volucelle. It is a syrph.
The Hornet-Mimic Hoverfly has a yellow and reddish-brown body that looks like a wasp or a bee. Its two abdominal stripes are thicker than those of the bee. Its head is yellow. The female has a larger gap between the top of her eyes than the male (the male’s compound eyes touch each other). The male has a darker head than the female. Its wings and legs are reddish-brown. It does not have a stinger at the end of its abdomen and therefore it is harmless to humans.
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The European Paper Wasp (Polistes dominula) is a hymenopteran insect, a winged insect related to bees, wasps, and hornets. It is a vespid and a polist wasp in the Polistini tribe. It is a social wasp. It is also known as the Common Poet.
The European Paper Wasp has a slender yellow and black body and long yellowish-orange legs. It drags its legs behind it when it is flying, because its legs are long. Its narrow wings are orange with dark tips. It has large eyes. Its antennae are yellowish-orange with club-shaped tips.
It has a venomous stinger at the end of its abdomen. It can sting multiple times because the stinger stays in the body (the stinger of bees comes out of the body when the bee stings an animal, so it can only sting once).
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The European Dark Bee (Apis mellifera mellifera) is an insect and a sub-species of the Western Honeybee, also called the European Honeybee (Apis mellifera). It is also known as the German Black Bee or the German Dark Bee.
The European Dark Bee has a head, thorax (chest), and abdomen (stomach) with a stinger. It has a brown-black abdomen with a few lighter spots on its abdomen. Its wings are transparent. It has six legs, and large eyes.
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What are the differences between the Asian Hornet (Vespa velutina) and the European Hornet (Vespa crabro)?
The Asian Hornet and the European Hornet are both insects in the family of eusocial wasps. They both live in colonies of several thousand individuals.
The Asian Hornet has a smooth, black and yellow-orange body with yellow legs and black wings, whereas the European Hornet has a smooth, black and yellow body with distinctive yellow legs and reddish-orange wings.
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The Asian Hornet (Vespa velutina) is an insect in the Vespidae family of eusocial wasps. It is a vespid. It is also known as the Yellow-Legged Hornet.
The Asian Hornet has a smooth black and yellow-orange body with black wings and yellow legs, called tarsi. Its thorax (chest) is brown or black. Its abdomen (stomach) is brown. Each abdominal segment has a narrow yellow border, except for the fourth segment, which is orange. Its head is black with a yellow-orange face and black antennae. The female worker hornet has a smooth barbless stinger that can repeatedly sting an animal.
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The Violet Valga Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa valga) is an insect in the bee family. It is not a Bumblebee, because a Bumblebee has a hairy body. Xylocopa violaceaand Xylocopa valgaare two species of the Violet Carpenter Bee.
The Violet Valga Carpenter Bee is glossy black all over with sparse black hairs. The opaque wings are dark brown with a blue-coloured sheen. It has six legs, two pairs of wings, and three body parts: (1) head, (2) thorax, and (3) abdomen. Its wings are dark (not translucent like other bees). Its antennae are medium-sized, and the male has slightly bent antennae. The male has a yellow patch on the top of its thorax, whereas the female does not (she has a black thorax). The male does not have a stinger. The female has a stinger on her abdomen, but she is not aggressive.
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The Violet Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa violacea) is an insect in the bee family. It is not a Bumblebee, because a Bumblebee has a hairy body.
The Violet Carpenter Bee has six legs, two pairs of wings, and three body parts: (1) head, (2) thorax, and (3) abdomen. It has a shiny black body with short dark-grey hairs, called bristles. Its wings are dark (not translucent like other bees) with a violet-blue sheen. Its antennae are medium-sized, and the male has slightly bent antennae.
The male has a yellow patch on the top of its thorax, whereas the female does not (she has a black thorax). The male does not have a stinger. The female has a stinger on her abdomen, but she is not aggressive.
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The Italian Honey Bee (Apis mellifera ligustica) is a small insect. It is also known as the Italian Bee or the Ligurian Bee. It is a sub-species of the European Honey Bee (Apis mellifera), which is also called the Western Honey Bee. It is a pollinator because it collects pollen from flowers.
The Italian Honey Bee has a head, thorax (chest), and abdomen with a stinger. It has a brown abdomen with yellow bands. Its wings are transparent. It has six legs, and large eyes.
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The Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris) is an insect. It is also known as the European Wasp or the Common Yellow-Jacket. It is a vespid.
The Common Wasp has a black and yellow banded body with black dots and markings on its abdomen. It has yellow legs. Worker wasps have a stinger at the end of their tail. It can sting multiple times because the stinger stays in the body (the stinger of bees comes out of the body when the bee stings an animal, so it can only sting once). It has large black eyes and black antennae.
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The Purple-Striped Jellyfish (Chrysaora colorata) is a soft-bodied invertebrate marine (saltwater) animal. An invertebrate is an animal with no bones. It is also known as the Purple-Striped Sea Nettle.
The Purple-Striped Jellyfish has a translucent (see-through) bell-shaped or umbrella-shaped dome body with purple stripes. It has long tentacles (limbs) with eight long dark purple arms and four ‘frilly’ arms. It has no brain, no heart, no blood, no bones, no excretory system, and no gills or lungs. It has nerve receptors in its body that enables it to detect smell, light, pressure, and touch. It is about 98% water.
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The Emperor Scorpion (Pandinus imperator) is an arachnid, related to the spider. It has eight legs.
The Emperor Scorpion has a thick, black body with a segmented exo-skeleton. The exo-skeleton is called the ecdysis, and it glows blue in ultraviolet light. It has large pincers, called pedipalps, and a tail that curves over its body. At the end of its tail is a stinger, called a telson, that is mildy venomous.
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Many birds eat bees.
The Asian Houbara Bustard can see a bee 60 metres (200 feet) away.
It usually eats a bee when the bee is on a low plant or on the ground. It approaches the bee from behind.
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The Arabian Fat-Tailed Scorpion (Androctonus crassicauda) is a venomous arachnid. An arachnid, like the spider, has eight legs.
The Arabian Fat-Tailed Scorpion has grasping front claws, called pedipalps, and a thick, segmented tail that curves over its back. At the end of the tail is a venomous stinger called a telson. It is highly venomous to humans.
The Arabian Fat-Tailed Scorpion is usually reddish-brown in colour, but it can also be brown to black. It does not have an inner skeleton (bones). Instead, like the spider, it has an exo-skeleton – an outer skeleton or shield that protects its body. The exo-skeleton is called the ecdysis.
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The European Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) is a small insect. It is also known as the Western Honey Bee. It is the most common bee worldwide. It is a pollinator because it collects pollen from flowers.
The European Honey Bee has a head, thorax (chest), and abdomen with a stinger. It has a brown abdomen with yellow bands. Its wings are transparent. It has six legs, and large eyes.