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Friday, April 9, 2010

Wasps

A wasp is defined as an insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita, making it neither a bee nor an ant. I believe the wasp photo I took is from one of the Scoliid Wasp species.

Species of wasp comes from two main categories, solitary wasp or social wasp. The name itself is self explanatory, with the solitary wasp generally living alone while the social wasp lives in colonies and in nests.

Wasps have also been documented to play an important role in natural biocontrol with almost every pest insect species having at least one wasp species that is a predator or parasite upon it, which helps to keep pest insect species population in check.Wasps like bees have modified ovipositors which they use to sting and inject venom.

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