|
The wasp is a winged INSECT of the same order as the ANT and BEE. Wasps have biting mouthparts and a thin stalk attaching the thorax to the abdomen (wasp waist); females have a sting, which they can use repeatedly, for paralysing prey. Most species are solitary, but paper wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets are social. Social wasps usually are divided into three castes: egg-laying queens, workers (sexually undeveloped females), and drones (males). They build papery nests consisting of either a single comb (paper wasps) or a large group of combs inside a papery sheath (hornets and yellow jackets). The nest may be underground. In all solitary wasps the female seals a single egg in a nest with paralysed prey for food; potter, or mason, wasps and mud-dauber wasps are solitary wasps that build nests of mud. |
||
|
|
||