Common misconceptions: Only bees make honey, wasps don't!

I've posted about bee's, hornets and bumblebees already before, but this post is to attend to suesas science challenge!

It is commonly known that bees are our main source of honey, as there are species of bees which live in big communities and produce grand amounts of honey. This is not useful for us only because of the honey, but bees are pollinators which are needed in berry farms and such to pollinate the berries (or apples etc.)

Most known wasps however are predators, which are focused on killing and eating other insects. They may collect nectar, but their main source of nutrition are other bugs and they do not produce honey to be collected. However there are wasps which produce honey!

This is known by quite few, as typically people are making difference between bees and wasps by saying "Bees make honey, wasps are predators".

Species Brachygastra mellifica - Mexican Honey Wasp


Mexican Honey Wasps is a species of wasps which work actively in pollinating plants and creating honey. They are highly social, living in large colonies (even with more than one queen in hives) and highly effective pollinators even compared to honey bees!

Mexican Honey Wasps effectivity in pollinating is as they have some hair in their body, as quite many other wasps have almost or completely hairless bodies. This may also cause some confusion with people, as they might not recognize Mexican honey wasps as wasps.

BZZ
By Alex Wild/Insects Unlocked [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Sources to read more:

Wikipedia, the best kind of source

Basic facts of the species

About pollination effectivity

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