It is unfortunately all too common for well-meaning yet naive observers to confuse wasps with their beloved apian cousins, honeybees. In the familiar black-and-yellow stripes those inclined to don the rose-colored spectacles of foolish optimism believe that they see the telltale markings of our honey-secreting insect friends. It is important to note that there are crucial differences. The furry, lovable bee is of a more robust and rounded, jolly appearance, whereas the wasp tends towards a feral slenderness and glossy metallic sheen. The wasp also tends to grow to a more pronounced size, most noticably where their longer thoraxes terminate into the fierce stingers for which they are so widely known and rightly feared.
In the application of this sting resides perhaps the most important difference between the two, for while the honeybee stings only in defense of the hive and in so doing dies, by contrast the wasp is free to sting again and again with no apparent ill effects, and is thus far more inclined to do so at the slightest whiff of provocation. A honeybee stinging an intruder is selflessly sacrificing itself for the good of the hive and the glory of its queen; Not so the treacherous wasp.
Nor do the differences end there...
Posted by flamingbanjo at June 14, 2004 03:28 PM