by Seirian Summer, a friend of Berenice
Great recommendation from Berenice. She’s good and animated reader of her book. We have a generic fear of wasp. Long since a metaphor for something that does no good, but evil. the Wasp Factory Ian Banks (russian roulette of torture of yellow jacket wasps in attic). Aristophanes The Wasps.
Bee v Wasp. No royal jelly. Wasp waist. Imagine if Ian Banks wasps replaced with bees.
Investigated the prejudice of people wasp v bee over internet search. Bee’s came out top, honey, friendly, useful, flower. Wasp, negative, sting. no idea what they did. internet search how to get rid of them. Arrival of yellow tailed hornet, from Asia reinstated fear – scarey. Media fueled monster wasp story. We have learned to detest wasps. Bee biased research increased.
Yellow Jacket or solitary wasp or hover wasp.
What is a world without wasps? Let’s give them a chance to prove themselves.
Endless in form – from Charles Darwin Origin of Species. Most likely to be talking of beetles.
2. Order Hymenoptera, ants and bees and wasps (of which far more species than either bee or ant) included. Eusocial – living together in a nest with an egg-laying queen and non-reproducing workers. The majority of wasp species are solitary, with each adult female living and breeding independently.
Parasitoid wasp -they lay their eggs on or in the bodies of other arthropods, sooner or later causing the death of these hosts. 80% of all wasps? Species exploded. Many parasitoid wasps are considered beneficial to humans because they naturally control agricultural pests. Females typically have an ovipositor (extremely useful reaching parts that other parts cannot reach) for laying eggs in or near a food source for the larvae, though in the Aculeata the ovipositor is often modified instead into a sting used for defense or prey capture. Beetles popular host.
Evolutionary family tree of wasps- how did some become solitary, some developed waist, some parasitoid. Wasp tree of life. Insects 479 million years old, oldest land animals. 280 million years ago, first Hymernoptera a wasp. Vegetarian, inelegant and without a sting. soar flies. Sawflies plant eating 250 million years ago. 240 million years ago parasitoid wasps developed liking for meat and waist (more nimble) heightened sense of smell.
Parasitoid wasp, one of natures most complex stories of interconection – hitch hike with.
Some reverted to vegetarian life,
eg FIG spend their larval stage inside figs.
eg Gall Wasp, cause nodules to grow on wide variety of trees eg oak. Induce the tree to grow protective casing, tree also provides the gall with nourishment. Plant providing without any benefit to plant.
Then came the invention you have all been waiting for – the sting. Evolving the sting easily from the ovipositor – the life giver became the hunter. 190 million years ago first appeared. Most of which solitary. The sting is much more than a weapon, it is a prey carrying kebab stick, a medicinal syringe, delivering antibiotics and mind altering drug.
Took on a different form for social wasp. eg picnic wasp the yellow jacket, or hornets. Most feared of wasp. Do not use it to paralyze prey. Become defensive.
Hover wasps of south east asia. Journey from soup opera to complex society.
The one that lost its wings – ants. Use wings only for sex and dispersal. (used to be greater biomass than humans) Wingless wasps. Flightless mutants.
All the bees were wasps. One developed a liking of pollen and became bees, 100 million years ago. They have become guardians of pollen.
Kalikellett 