Aabjiq • Wasp

Social wasps are insects with extremely narrow waists between the thorax and abdomen. Workers have a stinger at the tip of the abdomen. There are two main subfamilies of social wasps. Vespinae, or hornets, are black with yellow or yellowish-white markings on the abdomen, head or thorax. Paper wasps, or Polistinae, are brown, with long legs.

Ichneumon wasp (Ichneumonidae)

Ichneumon wasps are solitary and generally resemble wasps, but their antennae are longer and more segmented.In many species, the female’s abdomen ends in a filament even longer than the rest of the body. This egg-laying organ is called an ovipositor and allows a female to lay eggs on or inside the caterpillars, pupae or chrysalises of live insects.These insects parasitize a wide variety of hosts, generally immature insects.

Yellow Jacket and hornet (Vespidae)

Vespinae or hornets, are social wasps. They are black with yellow or yellowish-white markings on the abdomen, head or thorax. Yellow Jacket wasps are the most commonly seen and are important predators of pest insects. Their nests are covered in paper and have an opening at the base. They can be quite large.

Braconid wasp (Braconidae)

The Braconid wasps are small (1 to 15 mm) usually brown or black parasitoid wasps. They have long antennae.

Attribution

Description Source:

• Montreal Insectarium - Espace pour la vie

Main Photo Credit: Wasps by slgckgc, (n.d.). Licenced with CC BY 2.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Second Photo Credit: Ichneumon wasp by Maxim Larrivée - Montreal Insectarium - Espace pour la vie, (n.d.). Licenced with Permission.
Third Photo Credit: Wasps by slgckgc, (n.d.). Licenced with CC BY 2.0.
Fourth Photo Credit: Braconid wasp by Andreas Kay, 2016. Licenced with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/