#social wasps

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Uncharismatic Fact of the Day

Bees might be dancers, but wasps are drummers! Studies have shown that some species of social wasp will beat their abdomen, or gaster, against the side of the nest in a rhythmic fashion to alert others of nearby food.

(Image: A northern paper wasp (Polistes fuscatus) by Wayne Beirbaum)

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[whatnext10]

Hanging Upside Down Allows the Wasp to Drain the Flowers

Hanging Upside Down Allows the Wasp to Drain the Flowers features a fine-backed red paper wasp hanging upside down in order to feed on nectar from a row of flowers. These guys are actually fall pollinators and just beginning to nest right now.

Bottoms Up All the fabulous flowers that are blooming now are also attracting all sort of pollinators including bees, wasps, and butterflies. I spent some time watching and taking pictures of several of them last week. Unfortunately, I’m have computer difficulties with getting pictures from my camera into the computer for editing, so none of them are ready yet. Instead, I decided to feature this…

[roobiedo]

Made this for the Solarpunk Aesthetic Week server in a sudden creative fever, so I guess I'll post it here too hh

A relative of mine knows someone who teaches kids, so I'm gonna suggest this as an art project for them! The idea is that students could each make/decorate their own shelf, then put them together to form a hive, which could function as mini lockers in their classrooms. Then, by the end of the school year or something, they could either take their own little shelf home (or exchange them with their peers?), or recycle them into materials for the next class! Hopefully it'll teach them about pollinators too 🐝

Idk how doable this project is really, and its scary to imagine one of my silly designs could actually become something tangible irl. But even so, I'm still excited to try 🥰 (And if anyone else attempts this too, please let me know!!!)

[grubloved]

everybody make friends with wasps right now. if u have a garden you want bees for sure but mostly you want wasps!!!!! wasps and hoverflies....

[mantisgodsart]

so very small Worm (Wildbow), Bug Fables Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Skitter | Weaver | Taylor Hebert, Post-GM, Transmigration, Spiders, Bugs & Insects, Canon-Typical Violence

Taylor Hebert wakes up in the middle of a grassy field with an aching head, a massive blank in her memory, and approximately four more limbs than she remembers having. Approximately, of course, because one of her original four limbs appeared to be gone, and she wasn't sure how to qualify an entire abdomen suddenly spawning off of her backside. Something ingrained deeply into her skull told her she should be blaming someone, but she couldn't quite remember who.

Author's Note: Bugtober, Day 19 - Mimic. We think that Taylor would be a mimic spider if we swapped her over to BF. We have no major justification for this, but we are open to suggestions if anyone has a better idea, seeing as it's been nearly three years (we think) since we've read Worm and there are likely people on this website who are not operating on three years of character drift.

[kathryndaily]

KATHRYN NEWTON and PAUL RUDD via Kathryn's instagram

[lightningthunderstorm]

“ the Knight - the Pixie - the Giant”

[dazzelmethat]

Igg incoming. I may go back later to work on his feet or wings. This is technically a redraw, I've drawn him in this pose twice before. (slight injury warning) 2017 and 2011.

[indigobugs]

Bee -n really busy. I spend most of my art time nowadays working at the day job and when I'm off the clock I've kinda preferred to make wall hangings or paint miniatures. I also finally got married last weekend after a 1+ year engagement, so thats a lot off both me and my wife's minds.

[leadandblood]

Offers you a Pepsis Grossa.

YES! YEEESS!! WOOOOO YEEAAHH!!

Beautiful, but capable of inducing incredible pain. Amazing combo. I would pick one up no hesitation, which i know i would immediately regret. But I'd still do it. The wings are absolutely mesmerising.

Did you have a cold boy in mind Anon? And if so.... was it Jopson? 👀 If not thank you either way they're such lovely creatures <333 And I WILL be adding them to the insects i absolutely need to include in the AU.

god how did i forgot about spider wasps?? i suppose since they don't live in europe and i mostly go off european insects it didn't click. But gosh- can you imagine? the ungodly pain of their sting? everyone would be scared of them. Amazing.

Thank you anon 💖💖

[fiapple]

for such a small fandom, the moral orel community really does have a huge fucking problem with woobification of the adult cast.

it's gross.

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Wonder Common Wasps

The common wasp, Vespula vulgaris is a species of wasp that is native throughout Europe and Asia, and has been introduced in New Zealand, Australia, and South America. These wasps thrive in a variety of environments, from deciduous forests to meadows to urban parks and gardens; the primary requirements are an abundant source of food and at least several months where the temperature is above 2 °C (36 °F) which allows them to forage. Nests can be found in tree hollows, crevices, wall cavities, or any other enclosed space.

Vespula vulgaris has a highly varied diet. As larvae, they are fed pre-chewed caterpillars, flies, spiders, and bees. Adults consume more sugary foods like nectar, fruits, and honey. They find these foods through their extremely sensitive sense of smell; the common wasp is capable of detecting minute particles of food via their antennae, and once a source of food is found the individual will return to the hive to recruit others by drumming their abdomen against the side of the nest.

Like other hymenoptrids, the common wasp is a eusocial species; each nests consists of workers under the direction of a single queen. When a queen first begins her colony, she does most of the work building the nest from chewed wood fibre and laying eggs that produce sterile female workers. As the colony grows, reaching up to 5,000 individuals, the queen begins to produce both female and male workers, each of which performs a specific task for the hive; foraging, caring for the eggs and larvae, feeding the queen, or repairing the nest. These workers are directed by pheromones released by the queen, which is delivered both by air and when workers lick the queen to clean her.

The queen begins laying eggs at the start of summer, in May. Larvae emerge about 5 days later, and spend the next 20-25 days being fed by the queen until they reach full size, at which time they spin a mucus-based cover over their cell and emerge as a mature worker. This cycle continues throughout the summer and early fall, with larger individuals emerging later in the season. A larva's place in the hive also determines its size; the largest larvae, which becomes the queen, is located at the bottom of the nest closest to the entrance. Multiple queens typically hatch in a season, but most leave the nest to start their own colonies. Towards the end of the summer, the queen mates with multiple males and then enters a state of hibernation until the following spring thaw; meanwhile, the workers either starve or are killed by the cold.

Workers and queens are fairly similar in appearance; both sport yellow and black markings across their thorax and abdomen to warn away potential predators. The primary difference is that queens are larger, at 20 mm (0.8 in) long, while workers are only 12–17 mm (0.5–0.7 in). Only female workers have stingers. The species is commonly confused with the European wasp, Vespula germanica, as the two look remarkably similar; the best identifier is that V. vulgaris has only one black mark on its head, while V. germanica has three.

Conservation status: This species has a large, stable population and is considered Least Concern by the IUCN. However, in areas where it has been introduced, it is considered invasive due to predation and competition with native species.

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Photos

Andy Sands

Mike Snell

Dennis Maraisis via iNaturalist

[whatnext10]

The Fine-Backed Red Paper Wasp is an Important Fall Pollinator

The Fine-Backed Red Paper Wasp is an Important Fall Pollinator discusses the lifestyle of these nonaggressive social wasps and points out their importance for pollination, especially in the fall. It shows readers a couple of macro images of these wasps.

Indulgence Now that fall has arrived in central Florida many wildflowers are fading away and the pollinators are having to work a little harder to find food. One of the pollinators that I have been seeing a lot lately is the fine-backed red paper wasp (Polistes carolina), which is also sometimes known as the red paper wasp. They’re active much of the year, but for some reason, I see them much…

[here-there-were-dragons]

as a general rule, on average, if americans consistently complain about a food being conceptually weird, gross, and scary, then it probably tastes amazing. or at least inoffensive.

this is because in my experience americans for the most part (give or take a few exceptions by region) think eating literally anything other than beef, chicken, bread, eggs, peanut butter jelly sandwitches, ketchup, and disgusting cloyingly artificial brown sludge soda is insurmountably weird, gross, and scary.

[mishkakagehishka]

Like look at how many people made even jokey criticisms of usamericans to the tune of "they don't even know geography" are deactivated or have received an outrageous amount of anon hate for it

[crysdrawsthings]

It is late at night and I have a room temperature and very subjective take about BG3 that would piss a lot of people off and probably land me a fat package of anon hate, so I will exercise wisdom and move on.

Unless?