HOME	Diagram of a wasp

This diagram shows you what a wasp looks like, and what the different parts are.

Wasps are insects that have strong jaws, two pairs of wings, and a slender waist. Most wasps can fly, and many of them can sting you, several times over! A wasp does not die (like a bee does) after stinging you. There are over 30,000 different species of wasps alive today.

Like all insects, wasps have a hard exoskeleton, six jointed legs, two jointed antennae, strong jaws, and three body parts; the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. Wasps have a slender petiole, or "waist," that separates the abdomen from the thorax. Wasps have four transparent wings. Many females have a stinger at the tip of the abdomen.

1. Can you find the stinger?

2. What is the petiole?

3. How many wings do they have?

4. Do they have the same number of leg joints as a bee has?

5. What are mandibles?

Go to the answers and see if you were right!

This is a yellow jacket wasp, and you can see the narrow petiole.

The answers:

1. It is right on the back of the abdomen of the wasp.

2. The petiole is the narrow waist of the wasp.

3. They have four transparent wings.

4. They have six joints in their legs, the same number as bees have.

5. It is their jaw.

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