Hunting wasp

Hunting wasps are members of various taxa of the insect order Hymenoptera. Their habits and affinities vary in many ways, but all practise parental care of their larvae in that they capture prey, usually insects, to feed their larvae. Whether solitary or social, most species construct some form of protection or nest in which they hide the prey and in which the larvae can feed and pupate in reasonable security.

Most solitary hunting wasps sting their prey in such a manner as to paralyse it without killing it. As a result it remains fresh for the young to eat. In contrast carnivorous social wasps generally feed prey piecemeal to the larvae as soon as they bring it back to the colony, so there is no need for preservation of the material. A minority of solitary hunting wasps, such as certain Bembicinae, also butcher their prey before feeding it to the larvae.

Hunting wasp is largely a term of convenience. It does not correspond in absolute terms to any particular biological taxon, but rather describes certain ecological strategies that occur within the Hymenoptera and that almost certainly have been evolved independently several times, sometimes probably several times within the same family. In particular all hunting wasps are members of the Aculeata, within the Apocrita. However, by no means all Aculeata are hunting wasps, nor are the hunting wasps a monophyletic clade within the Aculeata. Some superfamilies of the Hymenoptera (e.g. Chrysidoidea) include a few taxa that might fairly be called hunting wasps, but no superfamily includes only hunting wasps.

In searching literature for "hunting wasps" it is prudent to include "solitary wasps" in the index terms. The two expressions have been used largely indiscriminately, especially in the very early days of modern entomology. Very few references to "hunting wasps" occur before about 1850, whereas references to "solitary wasps", though not plentiful, are not unusual.

Critically viewed, the terms are not strictly interchangeable. Not all solitary wasps are hunting wasps, nor are all hunting wasps solitary. The term "solitary wasps" simply describes those Hymenoptera (especially aculeate Hymenoptera) that are not social, particularly not eusocial. However, it never has been common practice to refer to parasitic Hymenoptera as "solitary", even though they definitely are nothing like eusocial, and secondly, some obligately social, even eusocial, Hymenoptera are hunting wasps in the sense of being predominantly predatory (e.g. Vespa and Polistes species). Thirdly, some solitary wasps, such as the Masarinae, are in no sense "hunting wasps". (But to avert confusion, consult the article on Euparagia.)

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