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“a social wasp”
“vespula germanica”
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*vespula is a small genus of ‘social wasps’, widely distributed in the ‘northern hemisphere’*
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(along with members of their sister genus Dolichovespula, they are collectively known by the common name yellowjackets (or yellow-jackets) in North America)
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Vespula species have a shorter malar space and a more pronounced tendency to nest underground, but are otherwise nearly indistinguishable from Dolichovespula
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As shown a Vespula Germanica
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“TYPES” –>
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*a wasp is any ‘insect’ of the order ‘hymenoptera’ + sub-order ‘apocrita’ that is neither a ‘bee’ nor an ‘ant’)
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(the ‘apocrita’ have a ‘common evolutionary ancestor’ and form a ‘clade’; ‘wasps’ as a group do not form a ‘clade’, but are ‘paraphyletic’ with respect to ‘bees’ and ‘ants’)
(the most commonly known wasps (such as ‘yellow-jackets’ and ‘hornets’, are in the family ‘vespidae’ and are ‘eusocial’, living together in a ‘nest’ with an ‘egg-laying queen’ and ‘non-reproducing workers’)
(‘eusociality’ is favored by the unusual ‘haplodiploid system’ of ‘sex determination’ in ‘hymenoptera’, as it makes ‘sisters’ exceptionally closely related to each other)
(however, the majority of ‘wasp species’ are ‘solitary’, with each ‘adult female’ living + breeding independently)
(many of the ‘solitary wasps’ are ‘parasitoidal’, meaning that they raise their ‘young’ by laying ‘eggs’ on or in other ‘insects’ (any ‘life stage’ from ‘egg’ to ‘adult’))
(unlike ‘true parasites’ (true?), the ‘wasp larvae’ eventually kill their ‘hosts’)
(‘solitary wasps’ parasitize almost every ‘pest insect’, making ‘wasps’ valuable in ‘horticulture’ for ‘biological pest control’ of ‘species’ such as ‘whitefly’ in ‘tomato-s’ and other ‘crops’)
“define ‘pest'”
(‘wasps’ first appeared in the ‘fossil record’ in the ‘jurassic’, and diversified into many surviving ‘superfamilies’ by the ‘cretaceous’)
(they are a ‘successful’ + ‘diverse’ group of ‘insects’ with 10s of 1000s of described species; ‘wasps’ have spread to all parts of the ‘world’ except for the ‘polar regions’)
(the largest social wasp is the ‘asian giant hornet’, at up to ‘5 centimeters’ (or ‘2.0 inches’) in ‘length’; among the largest ‘solitary wasps’ is the ‘giant scoliid’ of ‘indonesia’ –> megascolia procer)
(the smallest wasps are ‘solitary chalcid wasps’ in the family ‘mymaridae’, including the world’s smallest known insect, with a ‘body length’ of only ‘0.139 millimeters’ (or ‘0.0055 inches’), and the smallest known flying insect, only ‘0.15 millimeters’ (or ‘0.0059 inches’) long)
(‘wasps’ play many ‘ecological roles’)
(some are ‘predators’, whether to ‘feed themselves’ or to ‘provision their nests’)
(many (notably the ‘cuckoo wasps’) are ‘kleptoparasites’, laying ‘eggs’ in the ‘nests’ of other ‘wasps’)
(‘wasps’ have appeared in ‘literature’ from ‘classical times’, as the ‘eponymous chorus’ of ‘old men’ in aristophanes’ 422 BC comedy Σφῆκες (Sphēkes) (aka the wasps), and in ‘science fiction’ from H. G. Wells’s 1904 novel the food of the gods and how It came to earth, featuring ‘giant wasps’ with ‘3 inch-long stings’)
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(the name “wasp” has been used for many ‘warships’ and other ‘military equipment’)
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*👨🔬🕵️♀️🙇♀️*SKETCHES*🙇♂️👩🔬🕵️♂️*
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💕💝💖💓🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤❤️💚💛🧡❣️💞💔💘❣️🧡💛💚❤️🖤💜🖤💙🖤💙🖤💗💖💝💘
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*🌈✨ *TABLE OF CONTENTS* ✨🌷*
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🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥*we won the war* 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥