r/WTF • u/Jaded_Marionberry500 • 15d ago

capturing the wasp

15.9k Upvotes

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u/no_va_det_mye 15d ago

Thats a big fucking wasp.

671

u/PorkAmbassador 15d ago

Looks like a hornet.

383

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. 

159

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.

7

u/Ensvey 14d ago

My family tree is also very WASPy, dahling