The similarity between earth wasps and earth bees is clear - they nest in the earth. But how can the yellow and black striped stinging insects be distinguished from each other? If you look closely, it's not that difficult even for laypeople.
What are the differences between earth wasps and earth bees?
The main difference between earth wasps and earth bees is their appearance, lifestyle and flight times. Earth wasps are black and yellow in color, have little hair and live in social communities. Earth bees are brownish, hairy, solitary and fly mainly between April and June.
Species definition
First of all, a definition of terms: Earth wasps and earth bees are not equivalent names. While earth wasps are colloquially used to refer to wasps that nest seasonally in the earth, earth bees are actually a zoological generic term. In this country, the wasp species that occasionally choose an underground nesting site, i.e. only per season, are the German wasp and the common wasp, and rarely also the hornet. The earth bee genus includes around 100 different subgenera and around 150 species occurring in Central Europe.
To remember:
- Earth wasps colloquial term for wasps that occasionally nest underground
- Earth bees, on the other hand, are the correct generic term - includes around 100 subgenera
Differences
Appearance
The most immediate distinction can be made by their appearance. If you look closely, earth wasps can be clearly identified by their clear black and yellow coloring, their body with little hair and their proverbial, tightly constricted wasp waist. In earth bees, on the other hand, the dark part of the stripe color is more brownish to reddish, and they also have noticeably downy hair. The pollen-covered legs are also a clear indication that you are looking at an earth bee - because unlike wasps, they are leg-collecting, so they strip the pollen from the flowers with their leg hair brushes.
The way of life
A key difference between earth wasps and earth bees is their way of life. The species of wasps known as earth wasps all belong to the group of social wasps. So they form a state in which the survival of the species is secured in a quasi-communist manner through a communal division of labor.
Earth bees, also called sand bees, are always solitary animals and live alone. However, it can happen that several individual buildings are built next to each other. Rarely, two females live in the same nest, as a shared apartment, so to speak. That's why earth bees can buzz out of the ground in clusters in one place, but with careful observation you can make out the distances between the individual structures.
Flight times
Earth bees are active earlier in the year than earth wasps. This is also how you can identify them. Their flight times are mainly between April and June, while wasps only appear in large numbers from August, when the sexual animals are raised in the state.
