New Scientist - USA (2020-03-21)

21 March 2020 | New Scientist | 41

and native pollinators in the UK. Meanwhile,

persecution of the huge but docile European

hornet, Vespa crabro, continues, fuelled by

fear and ignorance, even though its numbers

are declining. Few people seem to care.

But are we judging this diverse group of

insects unfairly? Certainly, our perceptions

are ill-informed. There are whole institutes

dedicated to studying bees, while wasp

research is in the doldrums. Limited funds

attract few projects, the results of which are

often misconstrued in the press, bolstering

an already negative stereotype. In fact, what we

have learned about wasps tells a different story.

Far from being bothersome and vindictive,

they make valuable contributions to

ecosystems, the economy and even our health.

Take ecosystem services – a buzz phrase of

our time that means the quantifiable >

E

VERYBODY loves bees. They are

celebrated for their glorious

honey, cooperative work ethic and

commercially valuable pollination services.

In a 2019 survey, 55 per cent of respondents

chose bees as the species they most wanted to

save, above the likes of elephants and tigers.

How differently we see wasps. These most

unwelcome picnic guests have been reviled

for millennia. Ancient Greek essayist Plutarch

described wasps as degenerate bees. The

very word “waspish” summons up ideas of

irritability, implying they are quick to anger,

spiteful and vindictive. And that’s just the

regular wasp or yellow jacket. Our attitudes

to the largest wasp species, hornets, are even

more negative. The tabloids hawk horror

stories about how the invasive Asian hornet,

Vespa velutina, threatens honey production

Not so

waspish

They are one of the least loved

animals, but wasps deserve our

affection. It’s time for a rebranding,

argues entomologist Richard Jones

Many people

equate “wasps”

with these yellow-

and-black insects,

but there are over

100,000 species

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