Ants, Bees & Wasps
Order Hymenoptera
642 speciesOne of the most ecologically important orders, including key pollinators and social insects. Many species exhibit complex social behavior and colony organization.
Species in this Order
Hercules Ant
Camponotus herculeanus
A large black carpenter ant of boreal and montane forests across the Northern Hemisphere. Major work...
Hockeria Chalcid
Hockeria unicolor
A metallic dark parasitoid wasp that attacks the pupae of noctuid moths in the soil. It is found acr...
Honey Bee
Apis mellifera
The worlds most important pollinator. Lives in complex colonies of up to 80,000 individuals with a s...
Honey Pot Ant
Myrmecocystus mexicanus
Certain workers called repletes serve as living food storage vessels. They hang from the ceiling, go...
Honeypot Ant
Myrmecocystus mimicus
A honey ant species that engages in ritualized territorial tournaments between neighboring colonies....
Honeysuckle Sawfly
Zaraea fasciata
A moderately large sawfly with clubbed antennae and a dark body with pale markings. It is closely as...
Hooked Army Ant
Eciton hamatum
A column-raiding army ant that forms narrow trails rather than broad swarm fronts. It specializes in...
Horned Baboon Spider-hunting Wasp
Sphex tomentosus
A large, solitary wasp with a black body and metallic blue-green sheen. It hunts grasshoppers and ka...
Horned Mason Bee
Osmia cornuta
A robust spring-flying bee with distinctive horn-like projections on the female's face. It is widely...
Hornfaced Bee
Osmia cornifrons
A robust reddish-brown solitary bee native to Japan, widely used for fruit tree pollination. Females...
Horntail Wasp
Urocerus gigas
A large wood wasp that injects symbiotic fungus into trees along with its eggs....
Horse Chestnut Leafminer Parasitoid
Pnigalio agraules
A small metallic-green ectoparasitoid wasp that attacks leafminer larvae inside leaf mines. It has a...
House Fly Pupal Parasitoid
Muscidifurax raptor
A minute parasitoid wasp that develops inside house fly and stable fly pupae. It is sold commerciall...
Hunt's Bumble Bee
Bombus huntii
A medium-sized bumble bee with orange, black, and yellow banding commonly found in the western Unite...
Ichneumon Wasp
Megarhyssa macrurus
A large parasitoid wasp with an extremely long, thread-like ovipositor that can exceed the length of...
Indian Flower Wasp
Scolia quadripustulata
A robust black scoliid wasp with four yellowish spots on its abdomen found across South Asia. It tar...
Indian Giant Ant
Camponotus compressus
One of the largest and most common carpenter ants in India, with shiny black coloration and a robust...
Indian Honey Bee
Apis cerana indica
A small, dark-banded honey bee native to the Indian subcontinent and the primary managed bee species...
Indian Jumping Ant
Harpegnathos saltator
A slender predatory ant with large eyes and powerful jumping ability native to India. Workers can le...
Indian Paper Wasp
Ropalidia marginata
A slender social wasp with a brown and yellow body that constructs small, open-comb nests under eave...
Indian Spider Wasp
Hemipepsis tamisieri
A large dark-winged spider wasp from Africa and the Middle East that hunts large burrowing spiders. ...
Introduced Pine Sawfly
Diprion similis
A European sawfly introduced to North America that feeds on white pine and other five-needled pines....
Iris Sawfly
Rhadinoceraea micans
A small, metallic blue-black sawfly whose grayish larvae with dark heads feed along the edges of iri...
Jack Jumper Ant
Myrmecia pilosula
A medium-sized black ant with powerful mandibles and an extremely potent sting. It is one of the mos...
Jack Pine Sawfly
Neodiprion pratti banksianae
A serious defoliator of jack pine in the Great Lakes region. Periodic outbreaks can strip thousands ...
Japanese Carpenter Ant
Camponotus japonicus
A large black carpenter ant common throughout East Asia and a popular species in ant keeping. Coloni...
Japanese Carpenter Bee
Xylocopa appendiculata
A large, robust carpenter bee known as 'kumabachi' (bear bee) in Japanese due to its fuzzy appearanc...
Japanese Giant Hornet
Vespa mandarinia japonica
The largest hornet in the world, capable of destroying an entire honey bee colony in hours. A small ...
Japanese Giant Ichneumon
Megarhyssa praecellens
One of the largest ichneumon wasps in Asia with a remarkably long ovipositor. It parasitizes wood-bo...
Japanese Honeybee
Apis cerana japonica
The Japanese subspecies of the Eastern honeybee, known as 'nihon-mitsubachi.' Smaller and darker tha...
Japanese Horntail
Eriotremex formosanus
A large wood wasp with a robust reddish-brown body and dark wings. Native to East Asia, it attacks s...
Japanese Maple Sawfly
Megalodontes cephalotes
A colorful web-spinning sawfly with a large head, bright orange body, and distinctive long antennae....
Japanese Paper Wasp
Polistes japonicus
A small dark paper wasp endemic to Japan that builds delicate open-comb nests under eaves and tree b...
Japanese Scoliid Wasp
Scolia oculata
A large black wasp with distinctive eye-like yellow spots on the abdomen found in East Asia. It para...
Japanese Spider Wasp
Batozonellus lacerticida
A large black spider wasp with yellow-banded legs found across Eurasia. It hunts large orb-weaver sp...
Jet Black Ant
Lasius fuliginosus
A shiny jet-black ant that builds carton nests inside hollow trees using chewed wood mixed with hone...
Jewel Wasp Pteromalid
Nasonia vitripennis
A tiny jewel wasp that parasitizes the pupae of blowflies, flesh flies, and house flies. It is one o...
Keyhole Wasp
Pachodynerus nasidens
A mud-nesting wasp notorious for building nests inside aircraft pitot tubes. It has caused aviation ...
Koschevnikov's Honey Bee
Apis koschevnikovi
A reddish-orange cavity-nesting honey bee found in Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia. It prefers lowlan...
Lapland Bumblebee
Bombus lapponicus
A medium-sized bumblebee with a distinctive orange tail and yellow collar band. It is well adapted t...
Larch Sawfly
Pristiphora erichsonii
The most important defoliator of larch in North America. Periodic outbreaks can last for years and c...
Large Birch Cimbicid
Cimbex connatus
A very large sawfly, closely related to C. femoratus, with a massive body and distinctly clubbed ant...
Large Garden Bumble Bee
Bombus ruderatus
A long-tongued bumble bee introduced to New Zealand in the early 1900s to pollinate red clover. They...
Large Larch Sawfly
Nematus erichsonii
A gregarious defoliator of larch in European forests. Larvae feed in groups and can rapidly strip br...
Large Oak Cynipid
Cynips quercusfolii
A gall wasp that induces cherry-sized galls on the undersides of oak leaves. The galls turn from gre...
Large Rose Sawfly
Arge pagana
A conspicuous sawfly whose larvae skeletonize rose leaves in gardens and parks. Adults are stout and...
Large Sallow Mining Bee
Andrena apicata
A rare, early-spring mining bee that specializes on sallow and willow catkins. It has declined signi...
Large Scabious Mining Bee
Andrena hattorfiana
One of the largest European mining bees with a striking red abdomen loaded with pink pollen. It is a...
Large Scoliid Wasp
Megascolia maculata
Europe's largest wasp, with a massive black body marked with bold yellow spots. Females burrow under...
Large Shaggy Bee
Panurgus banksianus
A densely hairy black bee that specializes on composite flowers, particularly hawkbits and dandelion...
Large Square-headed Wasp
Ectemnius cephalotes
A large solitary wasp that nests in dead wood and provisions its nest with captured flies. Has a dis...
Large Yellow-faced Bee
Hylaeus signatus
One of the larger masked bees in Europe with prominent yellow face patches. It is a specialist on wi...
Large-headed Resin Bee
Heriades truncorum
A tiny black resin bee with a disproportionately large head that nests in beetle holes and hollow st...
Large-legged Chalcid
Chalcis myrifex
A parasitoid wasp with conspicuously thickened hind femora used to brace itself while ovipositing. I...
Larger Citronella Ant
Lasius interjectus
A subterranean yellow ant that emits a strong lemon-like odor when crushed. It lives entirely underg...
Leaf-Rolling Rose Sawfly
Blennocampa phyllocolpa
A tiny black sawfly that causes rose leaflets to roll downward into tight cylinders. The larva feeds...
Leafcutter Ant
Atta cephalotes
Fungus farmers that cut and carry leaf fragments to underground gardens where they cultivate a speci...
Legionary Ant
Neivamyrmex nigrescens
The most common army ant species in the United States, conducting nocturnal column raids on other an...
Lemon-tree Borer Parasite
Diachasmimorpha longicaudata
A parasitoid of fruit fly larvae that has been released worldwide for biological control of tephriti...
Lesser Banded Hornet
Vespa affinis
A medium-sized hornet with a dark body and bright orange-yellow abdominal bands. It builds large aer...
Lesser Bullet Ant
Neoponera villosa
A large black ponerine ant found from Texas through South America with a powerful sting. It nests in...
Lesser Citronella Ant
Lasius claviger
A small yellow subterranean ant closely related to the larger citronella ant. It produces a citrus s...
Lesser Leaf-Cutter Ant
Acromyrmex octospinosus
A smaller leaf-cutter ant species covered in spiny tubercles on its body. It forms more modest colon...
Lissonota Ichneumon
Lissonota setosa
A slender, reddish-brown ichneumon wasp that parasitizes moth larvae inside their shelters. Females ...
Little Fire Ant
Wasmannia auropunctata
A tiny golden-brown ant with a painful sting far out of proportion to its size. It is one of the mos...
Loblolly Pine Sawfly
Neodiprion taedae linearis
A pine sawfly from the southeastern United States whose yellowish-green larvae feed on the needles o...
Long-horned Bee
Eucera longicornis
Males are unmistakable with their extraordinarily long antennae, nearly as long as the body. It nest...
Long-Horned Xiphydriid
Xiphydria prolongata
A slender wood wasp with an exceptionally long neck region and thread-like antennae. The body is dar...
Long-Legged Desert Ant
Cataglyphis bicolor
A large, bicolored desert ant with a distinctive red thorax and black head and gaster. Workers are s...
Long-legged Oil Bee
Rediviva longimanus
An extraordinary South African bee whose front legs are nearly twice its body length, the longest of...
Long-tailed Giant Ichneumon
Megarhyssa atrata
A large dark-bodied ichneumonid wasp found in eastern North America. Females bore through bark to pa...
Longhorn Crazy Ant
Paratrechina longicornis
A small dark brown ant with extremely long antennae and legs that moves in rapid, jerky patterns. It...
Lower Attine Ant
Cyphomyrmex rimosus
A tiny, cryptic fungus-growing ant with a rugose and heavily sculptured dark brown body. Workers cul...
Lunar Ichneumon Wasp
Megarhyssa lunator
A striking ichneumon with a yellow and brown banded body. It parasitizes pigeon tremex horntail larv...
Lunate Ichneumon
Megarhyssa greenei
A reddish-brown parasitoid wasp native to North America. It targets horntail larvae in hardwood tree...
Lythrum Bee
Melitta nigricans
A specialist bee that collects pollen from purple loosestrife along rivers and wetland margins. It i...
Macromeris Spider Wasp
Entypus unifasciatus
A large dark spider wasp with a single white or yellow band on the abdomen. It hunts large wolf spid...
Macropis Cuckoo Bee
Epeoloides coecutiens
A rare cleptoparasitic bee that targets nests of Macropis oil-collecting bees. It was once thought e...
Malagasy Carpenter Bee
Xylocopa madecassa
A large, robust black bee with a metallic blue-violet sheen on its wings. It bores nest tunnels into...
Malagasy Dracula Ant
Mystrium voeltzkowi
An enigmatic Dracula ant endemic to Madagascar with pale yellow coloring and reduced eyes. Workers l...
Malagasy Edmond's Carpenter Ant
Camponotus edmondi
A medium-large carpenter ant with a bicolored body, typically dark head and gaster with a reddish-br...
Malagasy Mud Dauber Wasp
Sceliphron madecassum
A striking black and yellow wasp with a dramatically elongated, thread-like petiole connecting the t...
Malagasy Orchid Bee
Liotrigona madecassa
A tiny stingless bee that is one of Madagascar's most important pollinators. It has a black body wit...
Malagasy Paper Wasp
Polistes olivaceus
A slender wasp with an olive-brown body, long dangling legs, and narrow waist. It builds small, expo...
Malagasy Rover Ant
Tetramorium kelleri
A small, dark brown ant with rugose sculpture on the head and thorax. It is part of a massive endemi...
Malagasy Trap-jaw Ant
Mystrium oberthueri
A pale yellow to amber ant with elongated mandibles that can snap shut at extreme speeds. It is clos...
Malagasy Velvet Ant
Dasymutilla madagascariensis
Despite its name, this is actually a wingless female wasp covered in dense, velvety orange and black...
Marauder Ant
Carebara diversa
An Asian ant with the greatest size variation of any ant species, with major workers 500 times heavi...
Margined Colletes
Colletes marginatus
A small, pale plasterer bee found in sandy coastal habitats across Europe. It nests in loose sand an...
Maricopa Harvester Ant
Pogonomyrmex maricopa
Produces the most toxic insect venom known — with an LD50 of 0.12 mg/kg in mice. Just 12 stings can ...
Mars Leafcutter Ant
Atta colombica
A major leafcutter ant species found in Colombian and Panamanian tropical forests. It forms large co...
Mason Wasp
Ancistrocerus nigricornis
A small black and yellow solitary wasp that nests in pre-existing holes and hollow stems. It provisi...
Matabele Ant
Megaponera analis
A large black ant that specializes in raiding termite mounds in organized military-style columns. Wo...
Meat Ant
Iridomyrmex purpureus
A large iridescent blue-black ant that is one of Australia's most dominant and ecologically importan...
Median Wasp
Dolichovespula media
A large social wasp that builds aerial paper nests in trees and shrubs across Europe. They are less ...
Mediterranean Harvester Ant
Messor capitatus
A large dark brown harvester ant common in southern Europe and North Africa. Major workers have dist...
Mediterranean Scoliid Wasp
Scolia hirta
A black hairy wasp with two prominent yellow abdominal spots common across Mediterranean regions. It...
Metallic Ectatomma
Ectatomma ruidum
A medium-sized ant with a metallic sheen common in neotropical lowland habitats. It forages individu...
Metaphycus Scale Parasitoid
Metaphycus helvolus
A golden-yellow parasitoid wasp that attacks black scale and other soft scale insects on citrus and ...
Mexican Twig Ant
Pseudomyrmex pallidus
A pale yellowish twig-nesting ant found from the southern United States through Central America. Sma...