Difference between Honey Bee and Wasp

Wasps and bees both belong to the same order Hymenoptera in the animal kingdom. Although both belong to the same order, both can sting and fly and look alike, they have different physical and behavioral characteristics! Let us see how a honey bee differs from a wasp!

Honey Bee:

The honey bee is a small-sized bee found in forests, meadows and gardens throughout the world. Its scientific name is Apis. They have round abdomen and thorax with flat and wide legs. The honey bees build their hive from wax that is run by the female queen honey bee that populates the hive. They are perennial insects as the nest remains active as longs as the colony is healthy or not destroyed or disturbed by the humans or other factors.

Their stings are barbed which remains in the skin after a honey bee stings and flies away. They can sting a person only once as they die after they sting a person because their string is separated from the body that causes the bee to die eventually. Honey bee is herbivorous as it purely feeds on pollen and nectar of the flowering plants and does not eat the insects, worms, etc. Furthermore, they use dance language to communicate with each other.

Wasp:

Wasp is a medium-sized insect that is commonly found throughout the world. Its scientific name is Hymenoptera. It is more slim-bodied, have slender legs and the body appears non-hairy and shiny. They have a pointed lower abdomen and the narrow "waist" called a petiole, which separates the thorax from the abdomen.

Wasps come in different colors, from the common yellow to red-brown, dark brown, and a mix of these colours. They build their nests from wood fibers that they scrap with their hard mandibles and chew it to form a pulp by mixing it with saliva. They are not perennials insects as they have an annual life cycle and thus use their nest only for one year.

They are known for their poisonous sting that results in a painful lump that takes a few days to heal. They can sting a person more than once. Wasps are omnivorous insects as they feed on plants as well as small insects. They have many natural predators like birds, reptiles, amphibians, reptiles etc.

Based on the above information, some of the key differences between honey bee and wasp are as follows:

Honey Bee	Wasp
It is a small-sized insect.	It is a medium-sized insect.
Its scientific name is Apis.	Its scientific name is Hymenoptera.
They have round thorax and abdomen.	They have cylindrical abdomen and thorax.
They have flat and wide legs.	Their legs are long, thin, round and waxy.
They have pollen baskets on their hind legs.	They do not have pollen baskets on their hind legs.
Their stringer is barbed.	The stinger is not barbed.
They sting only once as they die after they sting.	They can sting more than once.
They made their nest from wax.	They made their nest from a pulp that they made by chewing wood fibers and then mixing it with saliva.
They are herbivorous as they feed on only pollen, nectar etc.	They are carnivorous as they feed on other insects and arthropods.
They can produce honey.	They cannot produce honey.
Worker bees build the nest.	Queen wasp builds the nest.