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Ferocious polybia wasp
Helio Lourencini, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist

Ants, bees & wasps

Ferocious polybia wasp

Polybia rejecta (Fabricius, 1798)

Names

EnglishFerocious polybia wasp
Dutch—
Spanish—
Chinese—
Scientific namePolybia rejecta (Fabricius, 1798)

About this species

Polybia rejecta is a species of social wasp found in the Neotropics region of the world. It was first described by Fabricius in South America in the 1790s. The wasp is associated with many other organisms, particularly specific species of ants and birds such as the Azteca ants and the cacique birds. This association is most beneficial to the ants and birds because of the aggressive protective nature of the wasp. The wasps will protect their nest even if it means death against any predator that approaches it and therefore this means that the association also protects the ants and birds. Additionally, the wasp is known for eating the eggs of red-eyed tree frogs as a main way of subsistence. It also, like many other wasp species, has a caste system of queens and workers that is evident by difference in body size among the wasps; the biggest female becomes the queen.

Read more on Wikipedia · Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Classification

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderHymenoptera
FamilyEumenidae
GenusPolybia

In Suriname

6Records in Suriname
8iNaturalist observations
1938First record
2022Latest record

Where it has been recorded

  • Brokopondo2
  • Commewijne1
  • Sipaliwini1

Districts with at least one record that has coordinates. Shaded districts have records.

Sources & credits

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