Ants, Bees, Wasps, and Sawflies

Dwarf honey bees (Apis florea) and Trigona species on water lily in Thailand.

Orchid bee (Apinae: Euglossini, genus Exaerate) from Costa Rica.

Cockroach wasp (Ampulicidae) from Monteverde, Costa Rica. These remarkable wasps turn cockroaches into their own personal zombies by first delivering an immobilizing sting to the thorax, then stinging a precise region of the cockroaches "brain" to inhibit its escape reflex. She then leads the incapacitated roach to her lair, upon she will deposit a single egg. Should she get thirsty while relocating her catch, she will even bite off its antennae and drink some of its blood, or hemolymph.

A parasitic wasp (Chalcidoidea: Eulophidae) oviposits on katydid eggs (Tettigoniidae) in Monteverde, Costa Rica.

Nuptial flight of Lasius claviger in Iowa, USA. Late in the season, ant colonies produce winged queens (left) and males (right) which leave their colonies to find mates in a roughly synchronized mass emergence. Once a new queen has found a suitable mate and is ready to "settle down," she bites off her own wings in preparation for a purely subterranean lifestyle, which I was lucky enough to witness.

A raiding party of army ants (Eciton burchelli) runs into a foraging column of fungus-farming leafcutter ants (Atta cephalotes) in Monteverde, Costa Rica. The leafcutters may seem outmatched by the sheer power of the Eciton blitzkrieg, but the farmers have a secret weapon - their enormous soldier caste. In addition to protecting the colony from intruders, these powerful workers (also called Majors) use their powerful mandibles to carry large leaf fragments and clear debris from foraging trails.

A skirmish between a foraging column of leafcutter ants, Atta cephalotes (right), and a raiding party of army ants, Eciton burchelli (left) in the cloud forest of Costa Rica. While I expected a grand pitched battle, they actually mostly avoided each other; however, when the trails overlapped, both colonies set up defensive perimeters to discourage the other from interfering with their foraging duties.

A foraging column of army ants, Eciton burchelli, subdues and shreds an adult cricket (Monteverde, Costa Rica). It desperately tried to escape the horde, but took a poorly-aimed jump into the middle of the pack. Within seconds it was pinned on its back, bitten and stung by more than a dozen ants; in another minute, its face was no longer recognizable.

A square-headed wasp (Crabronidae: tribe Larrini) attacks a small orthopteran in Monteverde, Costa Rica.

An Eastern carpenter worker ant, Camponotus pennsylvanicus, on the back of my house (Iowa, USA). Carpenter ants don't eat wood, but rather remove it to dig their tunnels which can cause structural damage.

A curious worker ant, Formica incerta, inspects my arm while I clumsily inspect her flower. (Iowa, USA)

two unrelated ants (Crematogaster cerasi, top; Formica incerta, bottom) overcome their mutual suspicion to feed on extra-floral nectaries together in an Iowa prairie.

Long-horned bee - tribe Eucerini, genus Melissodes (Iowa, USA).

Northern Paper Wasp, Polistes fuscatus, on goldenrod (Iowa, USA). Recent research suggests that this species possesses facial recognition abilities that may even rival our own! Because facial coloration varies so widely between individuals in this species, they seem to have developed a mechanism for recognizing members of their own nest and distinguishing them from rivals.

Braconid wasp, genus Atanycolus (Wisconsin, USA). She was patrolling a fallen tree, and after a little research, I discovered why: these wasps parasitize the larvae of wood-boring beetles. Once she detects a host, she will use her specialized ovipositor to drill into the wood and lay an egg on top of the unlucky victim, which will hatch and devour it.

A parasitic wasp, family Ichneumonidae, oviposits in grass seeds in Wisconsin, USA. Her target is not the grass itself, but other insect eggs and larvae hidden within. When she finds a suitable host, she will lay her eggs in or around the doomed eggs or larvae, which will hatch and devour them.

Tricolored Bumble Bee, Bombus ternarius (Wisconsin, USA).

Myrmosid ant (Myrmosidae, genus Myrmosa) from Iowa, USA.

A pair of worker ants, Formica subsericea, tends to a small colony of aphids. (Iowa, USA)

Winged ant from Iowa, USA.

Chalcoid wasp, superfamily Chalcidoidea, from Iowa, USA.

Sawfly (Hymenoptera: Symphyta) from Iowa, USA.

Weaver Ant, Oecophylla smaragdina, from Chiang Mai, Thailand). These handsome ants use their powerful mandibles and long legs to fold leaves, which are then glued together with the silk from their larvae to make their arboreal nests.

Nocturnal wasp, genus Provespa, from Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Winged queen ant, Acanthoponera minor (Heteroponerinae), from Belize.

Ichneumon Wasp, family Ichneumonidae, and an itty-bitty little Dipteran photobomber in the lower right corner (Iowa, USA).

Ichneumon Wasp, family Ichneumonidae (possibly Enicospilus purgatus), at my porch light (Iowa, USA).

A pair of odorous house ants, Tapinoma sessile, tends to a colony of green aphids on the underside of a leaf (host plant unknown). (Iowa, USA)

Thistle-feeding aphids, genus Aphis, being tended by Formica neogagates in Wisconsin, USA.

Winged queen ant, probably Formica rubicunda, from Iowa, USA.

A foraging worker ant, genus Dolichoderus, scavenges a dead planthopper (possibly family Dictyopharidae) in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Odorous house ants, Tapinoma sessile, react to my incursion into their nursery by rapidly relocating their eggs. (Iowa, USA)

A group of ants (genus Dolichoderus) attends a colony of mealybugs, family Pseudococcidae (Chiang Mai, Thailand).

Dolichoderus ants defend themselves from parasitic Phorid flies in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Nomad Bee (Apidae: Nomadinae: genus Nomada) from Iowa. Members of this subfamily are called cuckoo bees thanks to their kleptoparasitic lifestyle - that is, they steal the hard-earned resources of other bees to feed their young. Once a female finds a rival nest, she waits for its occupant to leave before laying an egg on the hard-earned pollen deposits collected by its owner, who will raise her larvae as if they were her own.

Ensign Wasp (Evaniidae) from Cambodia. These unusual-looking parasitic wasps lay their eggs inside cockroach oothacae (egg cases), which hatch into hungry larvae that consume the roach's eggs.

Ichneumon wasp (Ichneumonidae: Cryptinae) from Wisconsin.

Most Pseudomyrmex ants (like this one from Costa Rica) are twig nesters, seeking refuge in the hollow stems of a variety of plants. Some have even evolved obligate mutualisms with Acacia trees, defending them from competitors and herbivores in exchange for nectar and protein-rich excretions called Beltian bodies.

A pair of Pseudomyrmex ants on a bullthorn Acacia from Belize. These organisms have a mutualistic, or mutually beneficial relationship. The acacia provides shelter (via hollow spines) and food (by producing nectar and lipid-rich excretions called Beltian bodies) for the ants, and in return, the ant colony protects the tree from herbivores. Amazingly, some species even go so far as to attack and kill surrounding plants to decrease competition for the acacia.

Dolichoderus bispinosus worker from Belize.

Scoliid wasp (Scoliidae, most likely a male Campsomeris) from Monteverde, Costa Rica. This relatively small family of wasps (~560 species) are solitary parasitoids of scarab beetle larva, making them useful biocontrol agents against pest species like the Japanese Beetle.

Armored ant (Cataulacus sp.) from Chiang Mai, Thailand. These tree-dwelling ants primarily rely on their thick exterior for defense, but if sufficiently perturbed they will deliberately release their grip and fall to (relative) safety. Some members of this genus have even been observed performing "gliding" behavior to regain a foothold on the same tree from which they evacuated.

Lovely ichneumon wasp (Ichneumonidae: Cryptinae: Cryptini, possibly Lymeon sp.) from Monteverde, Costa Rica.

A paper wasp (Vespidae: genus Polistes) builds a nest on Koh Chang Island, Thailand.

Tiny male braconid wasp (Braconidae: Doryctinae: Spathius sp.) from Monteverde, Costa Rica.

Aphaenogaster tennesseensis (Formicidae: Myrmicinae) from Iowa, USA. These ants are social parasites of other ground-nesting Aphaenogaster species; that is, A. tennesseensis queens will locate a potential host colony, murder the opposing queen, and chemically fool the colony's workers into tending to her instead. Eggs from the new queen gradually replace the the host workers until a complete takeover is achieved.

Potter wasp, Eumenes fraternus (Eumeninae) from Iowa.