Hymenoptera

HYMENOPTERA
The Hymenoptera are divided
into two suborders:
Symphyta
mainly sawflies and
horntails
Apocrita
wasps, ants, bees, and most
parasitic forms
Sawflies
Horntails

HYMENOPTERA
A. APOCRITA
 "membrane-winged" insects
 social insects
 social systems in which
members are divided into
worker, drone, and queen
castes.
- Bees, ants, wasps

Drones are male
whose function is to
fertilize a young
queen bee.
Queen is responsible
for reproduction;
and she is the only
only reproductive
female in the colony.
Workers are the
most numerous
and ALL are female
and are normally
incapable of
reproduction.
HONEY BEES

are not only essential to the
propagation of the hive, but they are
also the sense organs of the colony.
Characteristics:
They are larger, plumper, stingless,
with significantly larger eyes and
antennae than workers or queens.
The gestation of a drone is 24 days
from egg to emergence and is often
longer than his lifespan, which may
only be a few weeks.
Drone Bees (Male)

Queen Bees
Distinct Characteristics:
 long slender abdomen that
tapers to a more defined point
 usually is of one color with no
bands.
 has no pollen baskets on her
legs and lacks wax glands because
she will never have to perform
these tasks.

 the life force of the colony, the queen is
the most important bee in the colony.
ability to lay fertile eggs and to rally the
entire colony around her individual
pheromone (scent) is the difference between
survival and collapse of an individual colony.
The queen is the largest bee in a colony
life span: typically in years; 2-3 years is
average
A good husbandry and forage a queen can
be productive for 4-5 years.
Queen Bees
Queen development is ironically the shortest of the
bees with emergence from the cocoon at 16 days.

 infertile females are the life force
of the colony and perform all
necessary tasks, except
reproduction.
Workers Characteristics:
 the smallest bees in the colony,
 have a 21-day development
period from egg to emergence
have the shortest life span: 4-5
weeks in the summer

According to Intergovernmental Science-Policy
Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
(IPBES) , the western honey bee is the most
widespread managed pollinator globally, and more
than 80 million hives produce an estimated 1.6 million
tonnes of honey annually.

A snapshot of the diversity of bees

(1) Pesticides
(2) Air pollutants
(3) Neonicotinoids
(4a) Insecticides
(4c) Insecticides
(4b) Insecticides

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)
This phenomenon can be caused by various reasons:
habitat deterioration. Human activities led to
degradation, fragmentation, and destruction of natural
habitats.
Changes in the landscape structure affected bees
and pollinated plants. Degradation of the natural
environment of pollinators caused a reduction in the
amount of bee food and changes in the bee population
GMO, which may have the potential for sub-lethal
effects on bees, thus disrupting their feeding behavior

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)
This phenomenon can be caused by various reasons:
Viruses-can cause lethal diseases and lead to the
death of an entire colony. Viruses can infect bees at
various stages of development and drastically shorten
their lives
Invasive species
Example: a small beetle inhabiting hives (Aethina
tumida species), which colonized Australia and North
America and is a threat to Europe, as its larvae destroy
stored pollen and honey

With more than 100,000 species
Two main categories:
(1) Social wasps build nests and live in
colonies of up to thousands of
individuals. E.g. Hornets and
yellowjackets are social wasps.
(2) Solitary wasps don't live in large
nests with other wasps, but live alone.
Some build small nests in the ground or
in natural crevices. Others get their
nests from other insects. Parasitoid
wasps lay their eggs in the bodies of
"host" insects, while cleptoparasitic
wasps steal their nests to use as their
own.
Wasps

Solitary Wasps
also called hunting wasps
Thread-waisted wasps
(Sphecidae) Digger wasps
(Crabronidae)

They have the following characteristics:
•Smooth and shiny body; few hairs.
•Body ranges from slender to stout.
•Vary in size from less than 1/2 inch long to 1-1/2 inches long.
•Vary in color: black and yellow, black and orange, iridescent
black or purple.
Solitary Wasps
Blue mud dauber Black and yellow mud dauber nest

Biology of solitary wasps
 Most solitary wasps nest in the ground. However,
some build nests made of mud and a few nest in
cavities, like hollow plant stems or cavities in wood.
There is one female wasp in each nest.
Some species live gregariously, meaning there
are many nests in a small area.
They sting and paralyze their prey.
The females bring a number of prey back to its
nest. The larvae feed on the immobilized prey that
has been provided for them.

Sphex ichneumoneus
Identification
A great golden digger wasp is just
over an inch in length. It has a
black and yellow head and thorax
with a reddish-orange and black
abdomen, reddish-orange legs,
and dark wings.
Biology
They build their nests in the
ground and are usually
gregarious with many nests in
the same area.
Prey
Katydids
Example of Solitary wasps

Prey
Hairless caterpillars and sawfly larvae

Digger wasps
Digger wasps (Crabronidae) are more compact and
robust than their thread-waisted cousins and are
usually black and yellow with striped abdomens,
resembling yellowjackets.

Bembix americana spinole
Identification
American sand wasps are about 1/2 to 5/8 inch long.
They have a black head. Their thorax is also black with
mostly yellow legs. They have a black abdomen with
five white to yellow bands.
Biology
Females dig nests in the
sandy ground including
beaches, playgrounds, and
sandboxes and are gregarious
with many nests in a small
area.
Prey
Flies

Social Wasps
commonly called paper wasps,
hornets, and yellowjackets.
They build communal nests by
mixing wood fibers with saliva to
form a paper-like material that
can be molded into brood cells
and other nest components.
The brood comb (cells where
larvae are reared) is always
constructed like an inverted
umbrella with open ends of
the hexagonal cells facing
downward.

Social Wasps
Workers usually cling to the
underside of the comb as they
guard the nest, feed the larvae,
and perform other
housekeeping chores.
 All social wasps are
carnivores; their prey consists
mostly of caterpillars and flies.
The wasps chew up their
victims’ bodies into a paste that
can be fed to their larvae and, in
return, the larvae produce a
nutritional syrup that is
consumed by the adults.

Types of social wasps
There are more than 700 species
world-wide. They can be divided into
three groups:
(1) Yellowjackets. Nests are usually
built in underground cavities, such as
old rodent burrows.
(3) Hornets. Nests are always
located above ground. Some species
colonize hollow trees while others
hang brood comb from a tree branch
and surround it with paper walls for
protection against the weather and
natural enemies.
(2) Common paper wasps. Nests are typically
found under sheltered overhangs where they
are protected from wind and rain.

Reproductive Caste Queen – Fertile adult
female and foundress of
the colony.
Drone – Fertile adult male
– develops from an
unfertilized egg.
Worker Caste Unmated adult females –
generally the daughters
of the queen.
Caste structure of the wasp’s social system

Some key identifying traits among bees
and wasps are:
(1) Bees have hairy a body and legs,
whereas wasps have smooth bodies and
legs.
(2) The abdomen and thorax of a bee are
round, while that of wasps are cylindrical.
(3) Bees have flat and wide legs, and
wasps have round and waxy legs

Ant Compared With Wingless Wasp

Responses of ant communities to disturbance: Five principles for
understanding the disturbance dynamics of a globally dominant
faunal group
Journal of Animal Ecology, Volume: 88, Issue: 3, Pages: 350-362, First published: 02
October 2018, DOI: (10.1111/1365-2656.12907)

Are ants beneficial insects?
Example: Ants and Aphids

Hymenoptera

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