***
Re: HOW TO 'MEET' A MEAT BEE & BE A HOT DOG, N....
Greetings and salutations,
Hope this e-mail finds you you well Cliff. You are a brilliant historian, but your biology seems to be lacking a tad.Hornets and the yeller fellers do have stingers and are shameless about using them, as i have been on the receiving end of both members of the wasp family. Just thought i'd get you straight on that. Didnt mean to sting you just straighten you out on the subject. Keep the sun to your back and your powder dry.
J.W.
***
Greetings, JW:
Excellent!
You are correct! I have always been under the impression that hornets bite, not sting, but I cannot find verification of that!
So it looks like you did indeed "put the bite" to me, and I am "stung" by the error of my ways!
There appears to be some confusion in general over the term hornet as opposed to wasp. My definition of wasp has always been the insect with the long narrow tubelike connection to the abdomen. Where as hornets exhibited similiar physical appearance to a bee. I'll check into that some more! Perhaps, if you know the differences, you can let us know?
By the way, I did find this interesting excerpt below from a web site at the University of Florida!
One note however: Although they do not say so here, these insects are attracted to sweet liquids. That is how I have been able to trap them by the thousands!
Thanks for setting things on the path of righteousness, JW!
-CliffMickelson
***
(begin snip)
Colonies are founded in the spring by a single queen that mated the previous fall and overwintered as an adult, usually under the bark of a log. Nests may be aerial or terrestrial, depending in part upon the species of the wasp. Some species may construct both types of nest. Regardless of location, each nest is a series of horizontal combs completely surrounded by a paper envelope. Initially, the solitary queen must not only construct the paper brood cells, but also forage for food, lay eggs, feed her progeny, and defend the next from intruders. When the first offspring emerge as adults they assume all tasks except egg laying. The queen devotes the remainder of her life to this task and does not leave the nest again. For most of the season the colony consists of sterile worker females which are noticeably smaller than the queen. Each worker tends to persist at a given task, such as nest building or feeding larvae, for a given day, but may change tasks if the need arises. Working habits apparently are not associated with age as they are in the honeybee. Workers progressively feed larvae a diet of masticated flesh of adult and immature insects, other arthropods, and fresh carrion. Lepidopterous larvae appear to be a favorite food. In autumn, larger cells are constructed for the crop of new queens. Larvae in these cells receive more food than do those in normal cells. At the same time, the queen begins to lay unfertilized or male eggs in either large or small cells. After emergence, the new queens mate and seek shelter for the winter. These will be the founders of next spring's colonies. The old founder queen dies, and the workers begin to behave erratically until social order breaks down. With winter's arrival, the remaining colony dies.
http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/urban/occas/hornet_yellowjacket.htm
