Hymenoptera

The Vespidae contains all the social wasp as well as a few groups of solitary wasps who were formerly classified as belonging to their own family, the Eumenidae.

Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris) - Cheshire, England - August 2009

The Common Wasp is one of Britain's most familiar insects.  They are highly social insectivores, whose colonies are under the control of a single queen. 

Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris) - Cheshire, England - August 2008

During the spring and summer they can be an incredibly beneficial species due to the massive number of insect prey items they need to kill to feed the colony's larvae.  It is only after the colonies break up in the Autumn and the workers no longer have larvae to feed that they become a nuisance.  With all the extra time on their hands, they are able to indulge their appetite for sugary foods and come into conflict with humans.

Great Potter Wasp (Delta unguiculata) carrying a paralysed caterpillar - Lesvos, Greece - May 2006

Potter Wasps and Mason Wasps are solitary wasps that construct mud chambers, or "pots", within which they deposit their larva's living larder and seal it up after laying their eggs on the host. 

Odynerus sp. - Wirral, England - June 2007

Manu, Peru - December 2008