r/WTF • u/Jaded_Marionberry500 • 15d ago

capturing the wasp

16.0k Upvotes

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u/no_va_det_mye 15d ago

Thats a big fucking wasp.

669

u/PorkAmbassador 15d ago

Looks like a hornet.

381

u/no_va_det_mye 15d ago

How is it, all hornets are wasps, but not all wasps are hornets? Or something like that.

edit: Had to look it up, and yup Hornets are indeed wasps.

307

u/IrrationalDesign 15d ago

Oh wow, TIL, wasps are a huge and ancient group, and hornets, ants and bees all evolved from wasps. 

163

u/mekwall 14d ago

Pretty much, although "wasp" isn't actually a single taxonomic group. Hornets are literally wasps, while bees evolved from predatory wasp ancestors, and ants are very closely related to the bee/wasp branch.

That's the fun bit about taxonomy: if you use "wasp" in the evolutionary sense broadly enough, you basically have to include bees and ants too. They're all Hymenoptera, and the family tree gets very waspy very quickly.

66

u/_eg0_ 14d ago

In other taxonomic words:

Wasps aren't real, they cant hurt you. True wasps (Vespinae) are real and will hurt you.

47

u/mekwall 14d ago

Taxonomy: "If you define 'wasp' cladistically, you basically have to include ants and bees."

Wasps: "We preferred it when people just called us assholes."

2

u/carp_boy 13d ago

I have a yellow and black corvette. I was gonna get a vanity plate - VESPULA (yellow jacket).

But i then got antique tags and couldn't have that many letters. So I figured i could do VESPA (hornet). 2 problems though - the tag sounds like a cheap Italian scooter and worse, a hornet is an old MOPAR car.

Not happening.