Waterwereld

wasp beetle

This is a small, narrow-bodied beetle that carries the same colors as the not-related german wasp. The wasp-mimicking is not only about the colors, this beetle makes a wasp sound when disturbed, and it even flies like a wasp, flying in a jerky fashion. Wasp beetles become about 1,5 cm long.
Waspbeetle or Clytus arietis.


wasp beetle adults

Wasp beetles flies well in sunshine in may until july, often visiting flowers for pollen and nectar. The females sometimes praying on insects to provide extra protein for egg-production. It is attracted by smell of the fungi that live on dead wood.

The larvae

The larvae live in warm, dry, dead wood of deciduous trees, and particularly favour willow and birch. They are sometimes present in dried firewood and hatch out during the winter months.

wasp beetle distribution

Wasp beetles can be found in the whole of Europe, Russia, Turkye and Kaukasus until the border of Iran.
Cerambycidae; also known as long-horned beetles or longicorns and stagbeetles
source : natuurgenot, wandeltochten L.G.Lutz, 1901

1 Red Kite or Milvus milvus
2 Great Spotted Woodpecker or Dendrocopos major
3 Tawny Owl or Brown Owl or Strix aluco
4 Stag beetle, male or Lucanus Cervus
5 European Red-bellied Clerid or European Bark-beetle destroyer with larva or Thanasimus formicarius
6 spanish fly Lytta resinctoria
7 oak leaf roller weevil or Attelabus nitens
8 hazel leaf-roller or Byctiscus betulae
9 Poplar-and-willow borer or Cryptorhynchus lapathi
10 wasp beetle or Clytus arietis
11 acorn weevil or Curculio glandium
12 acorn weevil or Curculio venosus.
13 Graet capricorn or Cerambyx cerdo
14 small poplar borer or Saperda populnea
15 Veranderlijke schijfboktor of collidium variabele




Batesian and Mullerian mimicry of the 1 common wasp.

micicry of the wasp


The wasp is the role model for mimicry: The black and yellow warning coloration (aposematism) has been mimicked by many other not-related insects.

Batesian mimicry of the wasp

The predators will avoid those mimics due to bad experience with the wasps that have the same coloration. Batesian mimicry is a form of mimicry where a harmless species has evolved to imitate the warning signals of a poisionous or dangerous or harmful species. This is done by the: bee
4 wasp-mimic moth
5 wasp beetle
6 hoverfly

Mullerian mimicry of the wasp

Unrelated insects that can defend themselves use the same colors as the wasp to warn predators. This is done by:

2 cinnabar moth caterpillar
3 honey bee