Scientific Illustration

rhamphotheca:

Various North American Wasps

from Field book of insects, New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1918. 

biodiversitylibrary.org/page/1595453

Hymenoptera by BioDivLibrary on Flickr.

Australian insects..
Sydney,W. Brooks[1907].
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/25450259

Hymenoptera by BioDivLibrary on Flickr.

Australian insects..
Sydney,W. Brooks[1907].
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/25450237

Hymenoptera by BioDivLibrary on Flickr.

Australian insects..
Sydney,W. Brooks[1907].
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/25450203

Hymenoptera by BioDivLibrary on Flickr.

Australian insects..
Sydney,W. Brooks[1907].
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/25450197

n175_w1150 by BioDivLibrary on Flickr.

Chrysis fasciata Olivier, 1790

An epitome of the natural history of the insects of India :.
London,Printed for the author by T. Bensley, Bolt Court, Fleet Street; and sold by Messrs, Rivingtons, Str. Paul’s Church Yard; White, Fleet Street, Faulder, Bond Street; and H. D. Symonds, Patersonter Row,1800..
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/25495114

n262_w1150 by BioDivLibrary on Flickr.

Hymenoptera

Catalogue of British Hymenoptera in the collection of the British Museum..
London,1855..
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34339609

biomedicalephemera:

Ammophila urnaria acquiring caterpillar to stock egg burrow

The thread-waisted wasps are all known as “predatory” wasps, and are classified as “parasitoids”. Females dig a burrow with several chambers, and collect caterpillars to fill each chamber. They then lay an egg on the top caterpillar, and permanently seal the burrow. This is generally repeated several times, with between 2 and 13 burrows filled with caterpillars.

Thing is…the caterpillars aren’t dead. They have to manage to not become dessicated or decayed for the entire period between the laying of the egg and the pupation of the juvenile, a period sometimes longer than several weeks, during the summer. The female wasp stings the caterpillar around the abdomen with a nerve-destroying paralytic poison, and while paralyzed, the caterpillar body automatically utilizes the stored fat (normally used to metamorphose into a moth or butterfly) to stay alive and not rot. Occasionally the caterpillars have been found to die, or not be paralyzed the entire period prior to their becoming food, but the female wasp has an extremely efficacious venom. The caterpillars almost always remain in their chamber until they’re eaten alive by the juvenile.

After it pupates, the adult wasp is capable of digging out of the burrow from the inside.

Wasps, Social and Solitary. George Peckham and Elizabeth Peckham, 1905.

(via rhamphotheca)

poptech:

Petridish.org: Crowdfunded science

Calling all armchair scientists! Petridish.org is a new site that allows you to help fund a science project, then follow along with the project team as it progresses. As with the successful site Kickstarter, which funds arts-related projects, backers reap a multitude of project-related rewards that range from updates and photographs of research in progress, to stones from far-away countries, even the possibility of naming a new species. 

(via insectlove)

“Agonistic behaviors performed by dominant females (DF) in relation to subordinate females (SF) of Euglossa carolina. The DF interrupted the activities of SF by first approaching threateningly (A), and then attacking by pushing the SF away with her head (B). Note the difference in wing wear between dominant and subordinate females. Drawings: José M. Macário Rêbelo”

From: ‘Task allocation and interactions among females in Euglossa carolina nests (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Euglossini)’