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Few insects are more important than bees, wasps, and ants. They maintain the garden’s biological balance, fertilize vegetables, fruits, and flowers, and recycle nutrients within the soil. It’s no exaggeration to say that a garden can’t be understood without an understanding of its insects. Bees, Wasps, and Ants explores the importance of the Hymenoptera and explains how gardeners can encourage (or discourage) them in the garden. Part One includes a summary of their biology and a tour of what role they play in each part of the garden. Part Two takes a closer look at the individual groups within the family, including sawflies, horntails, woodwasps, parasitic wasps, predatory wasps, bees, and ants. This book is only available through print on demand. All interior art is black and white.
With over 400 pages and 900 full-color illustrations, The Social Wasps of North America is the world's first complete illustrated field guide to all known species of social wasps from the high arctic of Greenland and Alaska to the tropical forests of Panama and Grenada. For beginners, experts, and everyone in-between, The Social Wasps of North America provides new insights about some of the world’s least popular beneficial insects, plus tips and tricks to avoid painful stings. This book includes detailed information about the ecology, evolution, taxonomy, anatomy, nest architecture, and conservation of social wasp species. To purchase this book in softcover format, visit our website at OwlflyLLC.com/publications.
The ultimate visual journey into the beautiful and complex world of wasps Wasps are far more diverse than the familiar yellowjackets and hornets that harass picnickers and build nests under the eaves of our homes. These amazing, mostly solitary creatures thrive in nearly every habitat on Earth, and their influence on our lives is overwhelmingly beneficial. Wasps are agents of pest control in agriculture and gardens. They are subjects of study in medicine, engineering, and other important fields. Wasps pollinate flowers, engage in symbiotic relationships with other organisms, and create architectural masterpieces in the form of their nests. This richly illustrated book introduces you to some of the most spectacular members of the wasp realm, colorful in both appearance and lifestyle. From minute fairyflies to gargantuan tarantula hawks, wasps exploit almost every niche on the planet. So successful are they at survival that other organisms emulate their appearance and behavior. The sting is the least reason to respect wasps and, as you will see, no reason to loathe them, either. Written by a leading authority on these remarkable insects, Wasps reveals a world of staggering variety and endless fascination. Packed with more than 150 incredible color photos Includes a wealth of eye-popping infographics Provides comprehensive treatments of most wasp families Describes wasp species from all corners of the world Covers wasp evolution, ecology, physiology, diversity, and behavior Highlights the positive relationships wasps share with humans and the environment
Hymenoptera, the bees, wasps and ant, are one of the largest insect orders, and have massive ecological importance as pollinators and as predators or parasitoids of other insects. These roles have brought them forcefully to human notice , as governors of some key ecological services that strongly influence human food supply. Recent declines of pollinators and introductions of alien pests or biological control agents are only part of the current concerns for conservation of Hymenoptera, and of the interactions in which they participate in almost all terrestrial ecosystems. Both pests and beneficial species abound within the order, sometimes closely related within the same families. Many taxa are both difficult to identify, and very poorly known. This global overview, the first such account for the whole of the Hymenoptera, discusses a broad range of themes to introduce the insects and their conservation roles and needs, and how their wellbeing may be approached. The book is intended as a source of information for research workers, students, conservation managers and naturalists as an introduction to the importance of this dominant insect order.
An introduction to the roughly 4000 different bee species found in the United States and Canada, dispelling common myths about bees while offering essential tips for telling them apart in the field
