Bees, Ants, Wasps and Similar
People maintain a love-hate relationship with this group of insects.
Bees, Ants and Wasps are well-represented in their Hymenoptera order as some 18,000 species are recognized in North America alone with a further 115,000 found worldwide. This order produces a variety of species types that make for a distinct love/hate relationship in the world of people - some are excellent at controlling pest populations while others provide a bounty of honey and wax sources for usable goods and still others can serve the medical and research communities with their fascinating ways. There are those, however, that are inherently more aggressive and will sting humans, sometimes generating allergic reactions, or build their colonies near or inside of homes. If these species rely on people food sources, they inevitably make their way into our food stores, eventually being labeled as "pests".
Species in this order may be walkers or have wings to fly but all are identified with flexible mouth parts for chewing. Most are highly social creatures living in large masses known as colonies or hives. This group of insects may be active in the day or at night though most are guided by the light and warmth of a summer's day depending on the seasons. Bees differ from Wasps and Ants in that they feed off of nectar and pollen and will pass these food sources along to their young. Wasps and Ants, on the other hand, are more of a predatory species that may hunt prey or feed off of nectar and honeydew sources and feed their young any caught prey.
As some of the most social of insects, Hymenopterans thrive in large concentrations of their kind where each member of the community serves a purpose that is beneficial to the group. Participants may be multi-generational in nature so as to pass on tasks to their growing young. Tasks for these units include defense and repair of the colony or hive, rearing of the young or gathering food to ensure future generations have a chance to survive. Warrior and worker types (known as "Drones" in the Bumble/Honey Bee world) are females without the ability to procreate while queens mate with males and these males die shortly thereafter. Once a hive or colony is begun, a queen does not have to mate again for she carries enough fertilizer to trigger up to millions of available eggs. The queen of some of these species has the power to select which eggs are fertilized based on colony need. Fertilized eggs will produce females while unfertilized eggs will produce males.
There are 23 Bees, Ants, Wasps and Similar in the Insect Identification database.
Those listed below are showcased in alphabetical order.
American Bumble Bee
Similar to Golden Northern Bumblebee (Bombus fervidus) but larger; black coloring just behind the wings; 1 to 3 stripes of ye...
American Pelecinid Wasp
The long abdomen ('tail') of the female invokes trepidation among humans. It is acutually used to deposit eggs onto the back...
Augochlora Sweat Bee
The shiny, metallic green color of this bee are unusual. In the warmer Southeast, they may appear more blue or purple.
Sw...
Bald-Faced Hornet
Blad-faced Hornets are related to yellow jackets but are not "true" hornets themselves. This species features a rather stout ...
Black Carpenter Ant
Black Carpenter Ants are relatively large. Known mostly by color, this type of ant also has 1 segement to its waist and a lon...
Cicada Killer
These solitary wasps rarely sting.
They ambush cicadas, oftentimes in mid-air. Even their larvae eat cicadas. Adults als...
Common Thread Waisted Wasp
The incredibly thin 'waist' on this wasp led to its name.
Adults feed on flower nectar, but larvae are parasitic.
Fem...
Cow Killer
The Cow Killer is not an ant, though it looks like a hairy one. It is actually a wasp with a severely ferocious sting that i...
Cuckoo Bee
This sweat bee gets its name from its parasitic behavior. Females change out their own eggs for the eggs of other sweat bees...
Eastern Carpenter Bee
Though is looks like a Bumble Bee, the Carpenter Bee does not have a fuzzy abdomen.
Females bore into wood, like a carpe...
Formica Ant
Ants in the Formica genus have only 1 knob (bump) between the thorax and abdomen. They feed on the honeydew created by aphid...
Golden Northern Bumble Bee
The Golden Northern Bumble Bee features an all-black head and dark wings. A black band runs across the mostly yellow thorax a...
Honey Bee
Honey Bees break down into two classes, the worker bees (numbering up to 80,000 in a single nest) and the Queen Bee. Unlike ...
Horntail Wasp
Females appear to have two menacing stingers, but they are actually an ovipositor (for injecting eggs into wood) and a spine ...
Ichneumon Wasp
There are several different species, each with its own color variations. All have the wasp body shape, a thin waist and an a...
Pigeon Tremex
Many species of horntail wasps have an elongated spine at the tip of their abdomen in addition to a stinger. Females have ov...
Red Velvet Ant
Although they look like ants, Velvet ants are acutally hairy wasps! They scurry about the ground like ants and carry a painf...
Small Carpenter Bee
This small bee resembles a wingless-ant. They are industrious and hard-working all spring and summer long. They can be found...
Tarantula Hawk
Male and female Tarantula Hawks vary in subtle ways. Male antenna are straight, while their abdomens are segmented into 7 sec...
Thistle Down Velvet Ant
Although it looks and walks like an ant, this hairy little creature is a wasp!
This particular species mimics the seeds o...
Thread-Waisted Wasp
The incredibly skinny waistline of this wasp helped name it. They can be found in meadows and open fields.
Females use a p...
Yellow Jacket
Yellow Jackets are easily distinguishable by their yellow and black coloring. Measuring in length from 12mm to about 16mm, th...
Yellow Velvet Ant
Despite its name, the Velvet Ant isn't an ant at all! It is a type of wasp. Ants have bent antennae and a twice-constricted ...
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