unidentified bees
Posted by D. Tauer on August 28, 2005
Q: There are some flying insects which appear to be "bees or wasps". They look mostly black, with a definite division between body segments, the lower segment (stinger part) has cream or yellow thin stripes.
State: Minnesota
Habitat: suburban/yard
A: Not always easy to tell wasps from bees but I'll "guess" that you're seeing wasps since these are often found around ripe and rotten fruits. My guess is that your animals are members of the large Vespid family of wasps, family Vespidae. The yellowjackets, paper wasps, and hornets are members of this family so you might want to see if these look similar. Keep in mind that there are many different species so there are many "variations on a theme" that can make identification confusing. You'll need to google several sites to have some different photos to look at since I couldn't find one that had an assortment of vespid species for viewing. See what you can find and although you may not have the exact species that you saw, if it's close, it should help. Thanks for asking.
John Wiessinger ( August 29, 2005)