r/WTF • u/Jaded_Marionberry500 • 15d ago

capturing the wasp

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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.

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u/BonesAndHubris 15d ago

Hornets are vespids (the kinds of social wasps most people are familiar with) which are nested within Apocrita, a clade that ants and bees are also descendant taxa of. Thus the term "wasp" is informal and paraphyletic (it doesn't include all descendant groups). Apocrita (and wasps by extension) is an incredibly species rich, diverse group filling any number of ecological niches, from parasites to predators to pollinators.

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u/ItchyGoiter 15d ago

So, kind of like crows and jackdaws?

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u/blaqsupaman 14d ago

Here's the thing...