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Webster 1913 Edition

Wasp

Wasp

,
Noun.
[OE.
waspe
, AS.
wæps
,
wæfs
; akin to D.
wesp
, G.
wespe
, OHG.
wafsa
,
wefsa
, Lith.
vapsa
gadfly, Russ.
osa
wasp, L.
vespa
, and perhaps to E.
weave
.]
(Zool.)
Any one of numerous species of stinging hymenopterous insects, esp. any of the numerous species of the genus
Vespa
, which includes the true, or social, wasps, some of which are called
yellow jackets
.
☞ The social wasps make a complex series of combs, of a substance like stiff paper, often of large size, and protect them by a paperlike covering. The larvae are reared in the cells of the combs, and eat insects and insect larvae brought to them by the adults, but the latter feed mainly on the honey and pollen of flowers, and on the sweet juices of fruit. See Illust. in Appendix.
Digger wasp
,
any one of numerous species of solitary wasps that make their nests in burrows which they dig in the ground, as the sand wasps. See
Sand wasp
, under
Sand
.
–
Mud wasp
.
See under
Mud
.
–
Potter wasp
.
See under
Potter
.
–
Wasp fly
,
a species of fly resembling a wasp, but without a sting.

Webster 1828 Edition

Wasp

WASP

,
Noun.
[G., L.] In entomology, a genus of insects, Vespa, of the order of Hymenopters. The mouth is horny, the jaw compressed, without a proboscis; the feelers four, unequal and filiform; the eyes lunated; the body smooth; the sting concealed, and the upper wings plicated. Wasps construct combs, and rear their young in the cells. The sting is painful.

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