One might think that bees and wasps have something in common - especially in appearance. Their reputation diverges with us, on the other hand - especially in times when bee protection is so highly regarded, one can ask oneself whether the related insects actually have a good relationship.
Wasps will eat a bee from time to time
What is bee, what is wasp?
The differentiation between bees and wasps is not quite as banal as one might think. They are not two clearly separated genera within a specific insect family. Bees, on the other hand, are a kind of split-off from the large insect group of wasps - they apparently developed by chance from the group of digger wasps. In any case, bees, like all wasp species, are classified in the order Hymenoptera and belong to the suborder of the wasps.
But what exactly makes the bees special among the wasps? Here are the main differences:
- Appearance: Bees do not have a typical wasp waist, they are hairier
- Bees (including the larvae) are purely vegetarian
- Bees produce honey
- Bees can only sting once in a lifetime
War and peace between wasps and bees
In nature, every animal species has to see how it survives. There is no room here for emotional friendships - at most for lucrative business relationships in which one benefits from the other in the sense of a win-win situation. Otherwise, everyone would do well to view other species with a self-perpetuating skepticism.
Attack and sometimes cruel defensive behaviors have also been observed between some wasp and bee species. As vegetarians, the bees are usually the victims of the carnivorous wasps. However, bees are by no means helpless - wasps have a strong offensive character, but bees are good on the defensive.
For example, some hornet species (which belong to the wasps) are honey thieves and penetrate bee nests to plunder them. As a defense strategy, the bees have developed an encirclement method that suffocates the hornet.
Especially for hornets, the largest wasp species living in Central Europe, bees are sometimes on the menu themselves. As insect hunters, they also generally eat related hymenoptera. However, this does not pose a threat to the existence of bee colonies, because bees are too defensive to be able to make up an essential part of their prey. 90% of the meat diet of hornets are still fly species.