Solitary wasps

All images on this website have been taken in Leicestershire and Rutland by NatureSpot members. We welcome new contributions - just register and use the Submit Records form to post your photos. Click on any image below to visit the species page. The RED / AMBER / GREEN dots indicate how easy it is to identify the species - see our Identification Difficulty page for more information. A coloured rating followed by an exclamation mark denotes that different ID difficulties apply to either males and females or to the larvae - see the species page for more detail.

Bees, Wasps, Ants

Bees, wasps, ants and sawflies are all part of the insect order Hymenoptera.  A typical hymenopteran has 2 pairs of wings which are coupled together with tiny hooks.  Bees, wasps and ants are in the sub-Order Apocrita, with a definite waist between the thorax and abdomen. 

We have placed Sawflies in a separate gallery because they are in the sub-order Symphyta, and considered to be more primitive than other groups of the Hymenoptera. They are very different to bees, wasps and ants - one distinctive feature is that they don't have a waist. 

Whilst everyone is familiar with the social bumblebees and honeybees, these represent only about 10% of all the British bee species. The remainder are solitary bees that don't work together as a single colony to rear their young. 

There is an even greater diversity of wasps. As with the bees, there are a few social wasps that everyone is familiar with, but these represent just a small fraction of all UK wasps. Sand-wasps, Digger-wasps, Mason wasps and Potter wasps and many other species all have solitary life cycles.

Many wasps are parasitoids, attacking the immature stages of other insects and eventually killing their hosts. (A parasite lives within the host, but doesn't kill it).  Examples are Chalcids, Ichneumons and Braconids.  These are generally under-recorded species, and identification often requires the help of an expert in the group.

Ants are all social insects living in large colonies that work collaboratively.  Identification can be difficult, and several are under-recorded in our area.  Gavin Gamble has written some notes on Ant Recording and Identification to guide recorders. 

Many members of this group are difficult or impossible to identify from field images. Make sure that your images include the diagnostic features needed to make a definitive identification or get a recognised expert to confirm the identification.

Identification help

Specialist Facebook groups (recommended): 

Solitary wasps

The familiar yellow and black social wasps are the outliers for the group - the vast majority of the world’s 100,000+ wasp species are solitary. The Chalcids, Ichneumonids and Braconids are particularly species-rich. For all their great ecological importance, most species are poorly studied and many of these are extremely difficult to identify. 

Eumeninae - Mason and Potter wasps

Michael Archer's key to the Potter and Mason wasps is available from BWARS. Eumeninae are a fascinating subfamily of wasps. Often called "Mason wasps" or "Potter wasps," they are the solitary cousins of the more famous yellow and black social wasps. They are actually some of the most beneficial (and architecturally gifted) insects , being predatory on many pest species which they use to stock the larders for their larvae. 

Crabronidae - Sand wasps and Digger wasps

The Crabronidae are a group of solitary wasps which construct burrows in soil which they stock with paralysed insects to feed their larvae. 

Sphecidae - Sand wasps

These solitary wasps get their name because most nest in the ground. The female digs her own hole and stocks it with paralysed prey, usually other insects or spiders, for her young to feed on.

Pompilidae - Spider hunting wasps.

While many wasps are generalists, this family is dedicated to a single task - hunting spiders which they use as living larders for their offspring. Graham Collins' draft key to Pompilidae is on BWARS' website. 

Sapygidae

The Sapygidae, "club-horned wasps", are primarily cleptoparasites (or "cuckoo wasps") which do not build their own nests. Instead, they sneak into the nests of solitary bees - specifically leafcutter bees and mason bees. The Sapygid larva usually hatches before the host's egg and uses its large mandibles to destroy the host egg or young larva., then consuming the pollen and nectar that the host bee gathered for her own offspring.