www.small-beings.org
www.small-beings.org
Die Faltenwespen (Vespidae) sind eine Familie der Stechimmen (Aculeata) in der Ordnung der Hautflügler (Hymenoptera). Sie umfassen weltweit etwa 4000 Arten, von denen etwa 100 auch in Mitteleuropa leben.
Die Faltenwespen sind eine Gruppe von Insekten, deren Flügel in Ruhe längs gefaltet sind. Sie haben nierenförmige Facettenaugen und eine häufige schwarzgelbe Warntracht. Die Faltenwespen können in zwei Hauptunterfamilien eingeteilt werden: die Echten Wespen (Vespinae) und die Feldwespen (Polistinae), die als Soziale Faltenwespen oder Papierwespen bezeichnet werden, sowie die Solitären Faltenwespen (Eumeninae), auch bekannt als Lehmwespen, zu denen über 200 Arten in Europa gehören. Zusätzlich gibt es noch die Honigwespen (Masarinae) mit weltweit mehr als 300 Arten. Es gibt eine Beschreibung verschiedener Nestbauformen sozialer Faltenwespen im Internet.
The Vespidae are a large (nearly 5000 species), diverse, cosmopolitan family of wasps, including nearly all the known eusocial wasps (such as Polistes fuscatus, Vespa orientalis, and Vespula germanica) and many solitary wasps. Each social wasp colony includes a queen and a number of female workers with varying degrees of sterility relative to the queen. In temperate social species, colonies usually last only one year, dying at the onset of winter. New queens and males (drones) are produced towards the end of the summer, and after mating, the queens hibernate over winter in cracks or other sheltered locations. The nests of most species are constructed out of mud, but polistines and vespines use plant fibers, chewed to form a sort of paper (also true of some stenogastrines). Many species are pollen vectors contributing to the pollination of several plants, being potential or even effective pollinators, while others are notable predators of pest insect species, and a few species are invasive pests.The subfamilies Polistinae and Vespinae are composed solely of eusocial species, while the Eumeninae, Euparagiinae, Gayellinae, Masarinae and Zethinae are all solitary with the exception of a few communal and several subsocial species. The Stenogastrinae are facultatively eusocial, considering nests may have one or several adult females; in cases where the nest is shared by multiple females (typically, a mother and her daughters) there is reproductive division of labor and cooperative brood care.In the Polistinae and Vespinae, rather than consuming prey directly, prey are premasticated and fed to the larvae, which in return, produce a clear liquid (with high amino acid content) for the adults to consume; the exact amino acid composition varies considerably among species, but it is considered to contribute substantially to adult nutrition.Fossils are known since Aptian of the Early Cretaceous, with several described species from Cretaceous amber.
The provided information gives a list of external links related to Vespidae, a family of wasps. These links include resources on the evolutionary history of their social behavior, stunning photographs capturing them in flight, an identification atlas specific to the Vespidae found in the northeastern Nearctic region, and information on different types of Vespidae, such as hornets, social wasps, paper wasps, and yellowjackets. These links can be useful for enthusiasts interested in learning more about Vespidae.