Brachygastra mellifica
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| Mexican honey wasp | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Brachygastra mellifica Say, 1837 |
Brachygastra mellifica (sometimes called the Mexican honey wasp) is a small Neotropical paper wasp, primarily distributed from Mexico through Central America, but with records from Texas and Arizona in the United States. It is well-known as one of the very few insects other than bees to produce and store honey (in fact, the name "mellifica" means "honey-making"). It is a dark wasp with some yellow bands on the abdomen, and very fine, slightly shining golden-brown pubescence on the body.
The nests are constructed out of paper, placed among the branches of trees and shrubs, and can be almost 2 feet (50 cm) in diameter, with 10 or more layers of horizontal honeycombed cells within the outer envelope. Many of the empty cells on the periphery of the nest are used to store honey that the wasps produce by concentrating nectar, in much the same fashion as the familiar honey bees. The honey is fed to the wasp larvae, and is their primary, if not sole, food source (adults have been observed capturing insect prey, which is typical behavior for paper wasps). Nests are founded by swarms, also somewhat similar to honey bees, but the swarms contain multiple queens, as do the mature nests. There can be several thousand workers in a mature nest, and workers are somewhat aggressive; the sting is barbed, yet another feature convergent with honey bees.
The honey produced by these wasps is consumed by humans, though the nectar from certain common plants (e.g., Datura) can result in the honey being toxic.
[edit] References
Hogue, C. (1993) Latin American Insects and Entomology. University of California Press, Berkeley, 594 pp.
