Vespa Fiesta

despite the lack of the classic stem-chomping pose associated with sleeping wasps, this Prionyx was clearly not fully awake or at least winding down, and only moved whenever i bothered it too much. my main intention was to show off its face and waist, but you can still see its oversized hind legs that almost resemble the grasshoppers its mom once fed it as a baby

i also got whatever this ridiculous shot is supposed to be so you can appreciate the aforementioned chompers

Credits: photo 1, photo 2

What is the difference between a bee and a wasp? Well, to put it in the simplest way— bees are complete nectarivores and get protein by processing pollen and nectar in multiple ways while wasps are only nectarivores as adults and get all their protein needs out of the way as larvae by consuming bug meat. So here comes the exception; despite being more related to yellowjackets and paper wasps than they are to bees, members of the group referred to as "pollen wasps" feed their larvae a diet sourced entirely from plant pollen and nectar, just like bees. Though while bees are known for processing it and making it more of a "bread", these wasps do it more stew style.

They also sleep very similarly to scoliid wasp (which they are only distantly related to) by curling up tightly around sticks or grass

Credits: photo 1, photo 2

Credits: photo 1, photo 2

My first sticker pack is live! Unfortunately, as I mentioned before I am not ready to ship physical copies internationally, but you can get ready to use files for personal print-out use for 5$ All the proceeds will go to develop more fun designs and perhaps allow me to ship these abroad at some point! Thank ya'll very much for being here with me, this would definitely not happen without your support!!! 💜✨

I think what they do is pretty neat and I completely understand their reason for stinging I know to move slowly and treat them with respect and they’ll usually just go about their day but like even knowing that fact I’m still extremely scared I can’t even go outside on a sunny day without constantly looking around making sure I don’t encounter any bees or wasps I don’t wanna be scared of them and I wanna imagine them as friends but this phobia is preventing me from doing so and I’m not so sure what to do which is why I’m posting this in hopes I can learn more about them and maybe it’ll be enough to make me even a little less anxious

Credits: photo 1, photo 2

This inconspicuous wasp is the only known trigonalid wasp found in Europe. What's so special about that? Well, trigonalid wasps are.... weird, even by wasp standards. They're hyperparasitoids, meaning they use other parasitoids that are already parasitoiding something else as their hosts. That part isn't odd for wasps though, and hyperparasitoidism can go several hosts of hosts deep. Trigonalids are weird for how they get to their target— which is by having their eggs purposefully eaten by a creature that either already is or will likely be infected by a parasitoid. The trigonalid eggs will wait to hatch until another parasitoid is detected and then they'll eat them up from within the creature that originally ate them.

Today's wasp of the day is the rainbow cuckoo wasp (Chrysis mionii)!

Credits: photo 1, photo 2

Disclaimer: This species used to be called C. concinna, and while that name is no longer considered valid it does seem to still be in use with some people so you'll see posted observations of this wasp under both names.