"Solitary Wasps. Behavior and Natural
History" is a look at the bizarre underworld of solitary wasps, a group of
insects distantly related to ants, bees and "real" wasps. The solitary
wasps covered in this book all belong to the suborder Aculeata. They include
the cuckoo wasps, the velvet ants or "cow killers", digger wasps,
pollen wasps, beewolves and others.
Their world is lawless land. Solitary wasps spend most of their time killing other insects (or each other) in various ingenious ways. Parasitism seems to be the favoured method. The only "nice" bugs in this book are the strictly vegetarian pollen wasps! But yes, even they sting...
"Solitary Wasps" cover all aspects of the behaviour and natural history of these varied and tiny creatures. There are chapters on foraging, nest provisioning, nest building, natural enemies and mating. One chapter attempts to explain the taxonomy of this group. Unfortunately, it's badly edited and calls sawflies "aculeates" at one point. (They are "symphytans", actually.) Got it?
The text is relatively easy to read, but can be "heavy" unless you have an enduring interest in wasps. The book is therefore mostly suited for students of entomology, and perhaps more advanced amateur entomologists. It's not a bad book, but it gives a somewhat boring impression, since the few illustrations are all in black and white. There are no colour plates or colour photos. Since many solitary wasps are pretty conspicuous, this would have been a plus!
Despite this little shortcoming, I nevertheless give this (somewhat scary) book five stars. Whatever you do, don't be reborn as an aculeate solitary wasp!
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