The boring wasps

Don't get me wrong. I'm sure "The Pollen Wasps" is a very good book...for professional entomologists. However, for a general reader like myself, it was boring, technical and occasionally incomprehensible. This, then, is a book for the scientific research library.

If you want to know what species of pollen wasp visits the flowery plant Wahlenbergia annularis, or what species of Mutillidae are larval ectoparasitoids on which pollen wasps, or are dying to find out about the exact cladistic relationship of Masarinae within Vespoidea, then this is the book for you. If not... Although the book covers the entire subfamily of pollen wasps, there is an obvious bias towards South Africa, where the author has carried out years of research on these insects. Weirdly, a few species of pollen wasps in the Southwestern Cape are actually threatened by extinction.

In a way, it's a real pity that this book isn't more popularized. The very idea of a vegetarian wasp feels inherently appealing. Most wasps, after all, are predators. Pollen wasps, by contrast, provision their larvae with pollen and nectar. But yes, they do sting!

Perhaps Sarah Gess could write a more popular book on this subject in the future? I'm sure pollen wasps don't need to be boring...

The bizarre world of solitary wasps

"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!