Any member of a group of insects in the order hymenoptera, suborder apocrita some of which are stinging. Wasps are distinguished from the ants and bees of Apocrita by various behavioral and physical characteristics, particularly their possession of a slender, smooth body and legs with relatively few hairs. Wasps also generally are predatory or parasitic and have stingers with few barbs that can be removed easily from their victims. Similar to other members of Apocrita, wasps have a narrow petiole, or “waist,” which attaches the abdomen to the thorax
Wasps have biting mouthparts and antennae with 12 or 13 segments. They are normally winged. In stinging species, only the females are provided with a formidable sting, which involves use of a modified ovipositor (egg-laying structure) for piercing and venom-producing glands. Adult wasps may feed on nectar and, in some species, on the secretions produced by larvae. Larvae of predatory wasp species typically feed on insects, while larvae of parasitic species feed on their hosts.
Wasps are subdivided into two groups: solitary wasps, which live alone, and social wasps, which live in colonies. Of the tens of thousands of species of wasps that have been described, the vast majority are solitary in habit. The social wasps are confined to about 1,000 species within the family Vespidae (superfamily Vespoidea) and include the hornets and (yellowjackets). They differ from other wasp families in having their wings folded longitudinally when at rest.
Solitary wasps are distributed in the superfamilies Chrysidoidea, Vespoidea, and apoidea. Most species build isolated nests, which they provision with paralyzed insects or spiders. The female wasp deposits an egg in each cell of the nest, and the wasp larva hatching from that egg feeds to maturity upon the food with which its cell has been provisioned. The vast majority of solitary wasps nest in the ground, digging tunnels in the soil in which to lay their eggs. But the Sphecidae, or thread waisted wasp (superfamily Apoidea), contain forms of more diverse habits, with some nesting in wood, pithy plant stems, or in nests made of mud. spinder wasp (Pompilidae) usually build nests in rotten wood or in rock crevices and provision them with spiders. The potter, or mason, wasps (subfamily Eumeninae) of the Vespidae build nests of mud, which are sometimes vaselike or juglike and may be found attached to twigs or other objects.