It is quite difficult to describe the behaviour of each species of wasp. What we can do is to generalise their behaviour by classifying them into two main groups of wasps.
- Social Wasps
Examples of these are Hornets and Yellow Jackets. These wasps have very powerful stings. They also have conspicuous warning coloration that allows the wasps to defend themselves and their nest if they detect threats. Social wasps are eusocial. They have a queen that lays eggs. There are wasps that take care of the eggs and the hatchlings. Other wasps go out and perform other tasks for the nest.
While there is a social hierarchy in the wasp nest, such social divisions become irrelevant when the nest is under attack. There are studies that describe the colony defence behaviour of social wasps. These insects defend their colony from threats at varying degrees of tenacity. Older wasps tend to defend their colony a lot more than do younger wasps. This behaviour shows the shift in behaviour from social hierarchy to one of temporal polyethism.
- Solitary Wasps
Solitary wasps outnumber social wasps. An example of this group is the Potter wasp. The female Potter will build its own nest, lays its eggs, and forages alone to feed its young. There are species of solitary wasps that build their nests alongside each other. However, each wasp will take care of its own nest. There are also solitary wasps that build communal nests. The difference here is that they do not observe a division of labour.