[ID: a painterly-styled digital art piece with a variety of realistic bugs, including centipedes, caterpillars, a weevil, and beetle, bordered by leaves and dandelions. There is also a tiny doodle of Hornet from Hollow Knight in the center. End ID]
Seeing a lot of posts like "umm why does everyone love bees and hate wasps, bees are bastards and they sting you why are they the only insect anyone actually cares about, why does everyone hate wasps when they're the same as bees"
Well you see, everyone ALSO used to hate bees. Like. You guys are just too young to remember when everyone who wasn't an apiarist or a gardener or an ecologist was militantly aggressive towards bees Because They Sting You. People would burn their hives and kill them all when they were found, not call a bee guy to relocate them, they'd stomp bees in the clover if they saw them. They actively hunted down and destroyed hives.
The reason "everyone loves bees" isnt an arbitrary whimsical choice because they're cuter than wasps. It's because bee lovers made a HUGE effort to encourage people to see bees as valuable pollinators and friendly little guys that just want to defend their hive. They taught people to see bees as cute and fluffy! There were awareness campaigns about the value of bees, there were advertisements, there were little documentaries and articles teaching people how to readjust their views on bees so that the hatred of them didn't cause complete ecological and agricultural collapse.
Bee lovers used to be in the exact same position that everyone who loves other insects is - you say that you like this creature and everyone in a 10km radius comes crawling over to tell you all the ways they personally would kill them.
The fact that it's so common now for people to think bees are cute fun little guys doing an important job is a fucking monumental victory and it was hard won, and it's as recent as in the last 20 years. When I was a kid in the 90s, everyone hated bees except ecologists and bug guys.
If you want this for wasps too (which i also want) you gotta put the work in to change people's perceptions.
True, I remember a kid in my 1991 grade school class even believed bees "steal" pollen from flowers. I also remember lizards, toads, and bats all still being loathed by everyone I met.
1st image: A bumblebee on the left says “I want to protect my home and family and don’t want people too close to my nest.“ and a person on the right responds “That’s ok I’ll be more careful!! I love pollinators!“ Lower down a northern paper wasps says the same thing as the bumblebee from before, but the furious person responds “I HATE YOU I HOPE YOU DIE“
2nd image: A person on the left with the text “ACTUAL ENTOMOLOGIST” pointing to them is saying “ Wasps are actually extremely important and we really shouldn’t spread mindless hate and misinformation about them.” A smug looking person on the right with the text “MOST UNPLEASANT PERSON YOU’VE EVER MET” pointing to them saying “Ermmmm… Did a wasp say this?”
[ID: A black-and-white sketch of an anthropomorphic mole cricket giggling to itself. In the top right is a much smaller sketch of a regular mole cricket with a speech bubble reading "soils!!!" End ID]
In the arts: In 2020, the world's first monument to a tick was erected in the Russian city of Ufa on a stone base from the Ural mountains with the inscription: "Same as you I also want to live."
2: a photo of the aforementioned monument, showing a hand-sized brass tick sculpture on top of a rock with a small plaque on it. End ID]
[Video Description: leafcutter ants carrying pieces of leaf across a concrete area. One ant is struggling to carry her leaf, continually trying to lift it up and then dropping it again. Multiple other ants scurry past as she is struggling with her leaf. End VD]
Anatomy: two compound eyes and three ocelli; chewing mouthparts (bees have developed their mouthparts into a proboscis for drinking nectar); when present, there are two pairs of wings; the forward margin of the hind wing bears a number of hooked bristles, or hamuli, which lock onto the fore wing, keeping them held together; females have an ovipositor for laying eggs (in some species this has been modified into a venomous stinger)
One or more of my favorite animals is in Hymenoptera
I love at least one or more of these animals
I like at least one or more of these animals
I am neutral about at least one or more of these animals
I dislike all of these animals
Voting ended onOct 25, 2025
Propaganda under the cut:
Most hymenopterans are parasitoids, feeding on nectar or other plant material as adults but living as parasites as larvae. Adult females have a special ovipositor for inserting eggs into hosts or places that are otherwise inaccessible. In some species, this ovipositor is often modified into a venomous stinger (thus, only female hymenopterans are capable of stinging). The sting is typically used to immobilize prey, but some wasps (including ants and bees) may use it in defense.
The Cedar Wood Wasp (Syntexis libocedrii) is the only living species in the family Anaxyelidae, though the family has an extensive Mesozoic fossil record, making it a “living fossil”. The Cedar Wood Wasp has the strange behavior of greatly favoring ovipositing in recently burnt incense-cedar (Calocedrus), red cedar (Thuja) or juniper (Juniperus). The wood is often still smoldering while the wasp is laying its eggs, and the larvae develop in the warm, burnt wood. The Cedar Wood Wasp occurs from the mountains of central California to southern British Columbia, but is very rarely seen, except by firefighters.
The parasitoid Tick Wasp (Ixodiphagus hookeri) has been investigated for its potential to control tick populations. It lays its eggs in ticks, and the hatching wasps kill their hosts.
The smallest known insect is Dicopomorpha echmepterygis, a Fairy Wasp from the family Mymaridae. D. echmepterygis males are blind, apterous, and their body length is only 40% that of females, with a body length averaging 186 μm… smaller than certain species of Paramecium, amoeba, and shorter than certain bacteria (Thiomargarita magnifica), all of which are single-celled organisms. The measured body length of a female was 550 μm. D. echmepterygis males have relatively long legs and are dull grayish brown, with small heads that lack compound eyes, and unsegmented antennae. Females, however, have entirely black bodies with dusky brown legs and antennae. The antennae are twice as long as the males, and females have fully-functional wings that are narrowed slightly through the middle. The wasps parasitize the eggs of the bark louse Echmepteryx hageni. Adult males appear to mate with their sisters inside the host egg and die without ever leaving the egg. …follow bestanimal for more Bug Sex Facts.
Little is known about the family Trigonalidae, but what is known indicates a remarkably improbable life history: in nearly all known species, females lay thousands of minute eggs, "clamping" them to the edges of, or injecting them inside leaves. The egg must then be consumed by a caterpillar. Once inside the caterpillar, the trigonalid egg either hatches and attacks any other parasitoid larvae (including its siblings) inside the caterpillar, or it waits until the caterpillar is killed and fed to a vespid larva, which it then attacks and feeds on. If the caterpillar is neither attacked by another parasitoid nor fed to a vespid, the trigonalid larva fails to develop. Therefore, they are parasitoids or hyperparasitoids, but in a manner unique among all insects, in that the eggs must be swallowed by a host, and even more unusual in that there may be an intermediate host.
In the eusocial wasp subfamilies Polistinae and Vespinae, both adults and larvae feed each other. While adults typically feed on nectar and other fluids, they will bring chewed up protein sources, such as insect prey, back to the larvae of the colony. Prey are chewed up and fed to the larvae, which in return, produce a clear liquid (with high amino acid content) for the adults to consume; the exact amino acid composition varies considerably among species, but it is considered to contribute substantially to adult nutrition.
Ants (family Formicidae) are derived eusocial wasps identified by their elbowed antennae and distinctive node-like structure that forms their slender waists. Ants form colonies that range in size from a few dozen individuals often living in small natural cavities, to highly organised colonies that may occupy large territories with a sizeable nest (or nests) that can reach hundreds of millions of individuals in super colonies. Typical colonies consist of various castes of sterile, wingless females, most of which are workers (ergates), as well as soldiers (dinergates) and other specialised groups. Nearly all ant colonies also have some fertile males called "drones" and one or more fertile females called "queens" (gynes). Ant societies have division of labour, communication between individuals, and an ability to solve complex problems. Some ant colonies are peaceful farmers of fungi, hemipterans, and Lycaenid caterpillars, while others are conquering warriors that kill or even enslave other ant colonies.
Trap-jaw Ants of the genus Odontomachus are equipped with mandibles called trap-jaws, which snap shut faster than any other predatory appendages within the animal kingdom. One study of Odontomachus bauri recorded peak speeds of between 126 and 230 km/h (78 and 143 mph), with the jaws closing within 130 microseconds on average. The ants were also observed to use their jaws as a catapult to eject intruders or fling themselves backward to escape a threat.
(suicide cw) A Malaysian species of ant in the Camponotus cylindricus group has enlarged mandibular glands that extend into their gaster. If combat takes a turn for the worse, a worker may perform a final act of suicidal altruism by rupturing the membrane of its gaster, causing the content of its mandibular glands to burst from the anterior region of its head, spraying a poisonous, corrosive secretion containing acetophenones and other chemicals that immobilise surrounding insect attackers. The worker subsequently dies, hopefully taking the surrounding attackers with it. (/suicide cw)
Ants may be the only group apart from mammals where interactive teaching has been observed. A more knowledgeable Rock Ant (Temnothorax albipennis) forager will lead a naïve nest-mate to newly discovered food by the process of tandem running. The follower obtains knowledge through its tutor. The leader is acutely sensitive to the progress of the follower and slows down when the follower lags and speeds up when the follower gets too close.
Leafcutter ants (Atta and Acromyrmex) feed exclusively on a fungus that grows only within their colonies. They continually collect leaves which are taken to the colony, cut into tiny pieces, and placed in fungal gardens. Workers specialise in related tasks according to their sizes. The largest ants cut stalks, smaller workers chew the leaves, and the smallest tend the fungus. Leafcutter ants are sensitive enough to recognise the reaction of the fungus to different plant material, apparently detecting chemical signals from the fungus. If a particular type of leaf is found to be toxic to the fungus, the colony will no longer collect it. The ants feed on structures produced by the fungi called gongylidia. Symbiotic bacteria on the exterior surface of the ants produce antibiotics that kill bacteria introduced into the nest that may harm the fungi.
The Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bees worldwide, and was one of the first domesticated insects, likely first domesticated in ancient Egypt, where tomb paintings depict beekeeping before 2600 BC. It is the primary species maintained by beekeepers to this day, often kept in orchards and on farms both for pollination and for honey collection. Unfortunately, this has also led it to spread far outside its native range and become possibly invasive in some areas, and it often competes with native bees for resources when not kept within the farmlands it was bred to pollinate.
It is estimated that one third of the human food supply depends on pollination by insects, birds and bats, most of which is accomplished by bees, whether wild or domesticated.
There is a common misconception that bees "violate aerodynamic theory" (a misconception quoted quite often thanks to a certain movie). However, the truth is that bees do not engage in fixed-wing flight, but their flight is explained by other mechanics similar to those used by helicopters. In 1996 it was shown that vortices created by many insects' wings helped to provide lift. High-speed cinematography and robotic mock-up of a bee wing showed that lift was generated by "the unconventional combination of short, choppy wing strokes, a rapid rotation of the wing as it flops over and reverses direction, and a very fast wing-beat frequency". Wing-beat frequency normally increases as size decreases, but as the bee's wing beat covers such a small arc, it flaps approximately 230 times per second, faster than a fruitfly (200 times per second) which is 80 times smaller.
Bees and honey were sacred in Ancient Greece. Honey, according to a Greek myth, was discovered by a nymph called Melissa ("Bee"); and honey was offered to the Greek gods from Mycenean times. Bees were also associated with the Delphic oracle and the prophetess was sometimes called a bee.
The Schmidt sting pain index is a pain scale rating the relative pain caused by different hymenopteran stings. It is mainly the work of Justin O. Schmidt, who was an entomologist at the Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Arizona. Schmidt classified the stings of 78 species and 41 genera of Hymenoptera, rating their level of pain, starting from 0 for stings that are completely ineffective against humans, progressing through 2 for familiar pains such as those caused by common bee or wasp stings, and finishing at 4 for the most painful stings. Only the Bullet Ant (Paraponera clavata), the Pepsine Spider Wasp (Pepsis grossa), and the Northern Warrior Wasp (Synoeca septentrionalis) ever achieved a 4 rating.
Hymenopterans in general are highly susceptible to habitat loss, which can lead to substantial decreases in species richness and have major ecological implications due to their pivotal role as plant pollinators.
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