wasp: Quick Facts

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Last updated

Oct. 28, 2026

News •

Massive wasps' nest in wildlife office dismantled • Oct. 21, 2026, 1:35 AM ET (BBC)

Photos and Videos

A paper wasp (Polistes fuscatus) with black and yellow striped body and long legs stands on bright green leaves.

cicada-killer wasp

thread-waisted wasp

Paper wasps (Polistes)

sand wasp (Bembix)

Ensign wasp (Evania appendigaster)

Velvet ant (Dasymutilla occidentalis)

The video thumbnail image shows a tarantula hawk wasp attacking a tarantula spider.

How do social wasps and bees communicate danger?

See a colony of hornets battle with a stag beetle for access to tree sap

Behold the multitude of Amazonian arthropods including spiders, scorpions, beetles, and mantids

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Topics

vespoid wasp scoliid wasp sphecoid wasp tiphiid wasp What’s the Difference Between a Bee and a Wasp?How Are Ants, Wasps, and Bees Related?gall wasp What’s the difference between hornets and wasps?cuckoo wasp velvet ant heteropteran Coleoptera ant grasshopper bee butterfly moth fly apterygote Insects That Wear Things

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wasp. Vespid Wasp (Vespidaea) with antennas and compound eyes drink nectar from a cherry. Hornets largest eusocial wasps, stinging insect in the order Hymenoptera, related to bees. Pollination

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