What ground wasps and ground bees have in common is clear - they nest in the soil. But how can the yellow and black striped spiny insects be distinguished from each other? If you look closely, it's not that difficult, even for laypeople.
Ground bees are fluffy and brownish
species definition
First of all, a definition of terms: ground wasps and ground bees are not equivalent terms. While earth wasps are colloquially referred to as wasps that nest seasonally in the earth, earth bees are actually a zoological generic term. The wasp species that occasionally, i.e. only per season, occasionally choose an underground nesting site in this country are the German and the common wasp, and rarely the hornet. The genus of earth bees includes around 100 different subgenera and around 150 species occurring in Central Europe.
To remember:
- Earth wasps slang term for wasps that nest occasionally underground
- Earth bees, on the other hand, are the correct generic term - includes about 100 subgenera
differences
Look
The most immediate distinction can be seen in appearance. If you look closely, earth wasps can be clearly identified by their clear black and yellow coloration, their little hairy body and their proverbial, tightly constricted wasp waist. In earth bees, on the other hand, the dark part of the stripe coloration is more brownish to reddish, and they also have downy hairs. The pollen-covered legs are also a clear indication that you are dealing with a bee bee - because, unlike wasps, they collect legs, ie they scrape the pollen from the flowers with their leg hair brushes.
The lifestyle
A major difference between ground wasps and ground bees is their way of life. The wasp species that are situationally referred to as earth wasps all belong to the group of social wasps. They form a state in which the continued existence of the species is secured in a quasi-communist way in a communal division of labour.
Earth bees, also known as sand bees, are always solitary animals, i.e. they live alone. Nevertheless, it can happen that several individual buildings are built next to each other. Rarely do two females live in the same nest, as a flat share, so to speak. That's why earth bees can buzz out of the ground in heaps in one place, but if you look closely, you can tell the distances between the individual buildings.
flight times
Ground bees are active earlier in the year than ground wasps. You can also identify them by that. Their flight times are mainly between April and June, while wasps only appear in large numbers from August, when the sex animals are raised in the state.