Читать книгу Wild Bees, Wasps and Ants and Other Stinging Insects - Edward Saunders - Страница 12

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The ordinary wasps are acquaintances of every one, but the solitary or keyhole wasps are not so well known, although they are far from uncommon. They are little narrow black insects striped across the body with yellow, belonging to the genus Odynerus (pl. A, 9), and might hardly be recognized as belonging to the same family as the true or social wasps. Still they have considerable powers of stinging, and fold their wings lengthwise when at rest like their larger relatives. I dare say some people may have noticed that a wasp's wing sometimes assumes a narrow straight form, quite unlike what it is when expanded. This is due to the wasp being able to fold its wing lengthwise like a fan. The wasp tribe are, so far as I know, the only stinging Hymenoptera which have this power.