Tiny titans: wings, stings, and wonders
Insects are the largest group of animals on earth and account for 80% of all animals on the planet. Research indicates that insects and crustaceans form a clade called Pancrustacea. Based on phylogenetic research, insects are terrestrial crustaceans! Estimates vary, but there are about 7 million species of insects. Scientists believe that the total number of individual insects on the planet is over 10 quintillion (i.e.10,000,000,000,000,000,000)! Insects inhabit almost every corner of the globe and come in a variety of colors and forms.
Bees
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Orchid bees are solitary insects known for their striking appearance and fascinating behaviors. The females forage alone, gathering pollen and nectar from a wide variety of plants to feed their young. They also collect materials like resin, mud, and plant fibers to construct their nests.
One of the most remarkable features of orchid bees is their brilliant metallic coloration—typically shimmering shades of green, gold, or blue. Males are especially unique: they have specially adapted legs designed to collect and store fragrances from flowers and other sources.
Chevrolat's Tropical Long horn Beetle
Beetles
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Beetles represent the largest order of insects in the country but there are huge gaps in our understanding of the distribution of beetle species across the archipelago which limits our ability to engage in robust discussions on that topic. There are 205 endemic genera of beetles in the West Indies, 100 of whom are endemic to the Greater Antilles and five genera are endemic to the Lucayan Archipelago.
The beetle fauna of The Bahamas are a mixture of Greater Antillean and North American influences. Many of these insects are endemic to The Bahamas.
Rhinoceros Beetle
Orchid Bees
The Bahamas is home to thousands of insects, including over 1,000 species of butterflies and moths, over 1,000 species of beetles, 35 species of bees, over 40 species of wasps, over 90 species of ants and thousands of undescribed species. We even have several species of insects that are endemic to our islands, such as the Bahamian Stick Insect and the Bahamian Cicada.
These collected scents play a key role in their mating rituals, as males use them to show genetic quality, attract and impress potential female mates.
Carpenter Bee
Also considered a solitary insect species, Carpenter Bees are often mistaken for Bumblebees due to their similar size and shape. However, they can be distinguished by one key feature: markings on the abdomen. While Bumblebees have a fuzzy abdomen with black and yellow stripes, Carpenter Bees have a shiny, hairless black abdomen. Another difference is that Bumblebee's nest underground whereas Carpenter Bees bore into wood to build their nest.
When selecting a nest site, Carpenter Bees prefer softwoods such as pine, cedar, or spruce, these bees tunnel into dead wood or bamboo to create their homes. This behavior is what earned them the name “Carpenter Bee.”
Carpenter Bees belong to the genus Xylocopa in the subfamily Xylocopinae, which includes over 400 species across 31 subgenera.
Unlike Honeybees, solitary bees such as the Orchid and Carpenter Bees do not produce honey.
Paper Wasps
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Social wasps of the genus Polistes are some of the most well-known wasp species in The Bahamas. Many people have had brush-ins with these wasps, often with painful consequences.
The genus Polistes is a large group of social wasps with over 220 species recognized. They are called “paper wasps” because they build paper-like nests from plant pulp and saliva. In The Bahamas, we have several species, including the Guinea Wasp (Polistes exclamans), Horse Wasp (P. major), and Bahamian Paperwasp (P. bahamensis). Being a social species, Paper wasps can create large nests that support dozens of individuals
Horse Wasps on nest
Guinea paperwasp
Paper wasps exhibit a complex dominant heiarchal system, very similar to that of social vertebrate animals. A foundress or foundresses ( a mated female or females) can start a nest and, in mature colonies, paper wasp individuals exhibit reproductive divisions of labour. The dominant foundress lays the eggs while the others act as workers or subordinates, each of which can hold a subdominant rank over others on the nest.
Males of some species such as P. major also assist with feeding nest larvae.
Paperwasps dawn aposematic coloration to let animals know that they are dangerous. The colours of red, black, and yellow are strong warning colors. When the wasp becomes alert, its wings open and the animal faces the intruder. If the intruder proceeds closer, the front legs are often seen moving up and down. If the threat continues to come closer, the front legs move faster, and the abdomen begins to pulsate. Finally, if the intruder fails to see or adhere to the warning signs, the wasps attack. Unlike bees, which have a barbed stinger that once it penetrates skin, it cannot come out, wasps do not have barbs and can sting repeatedly. Stings are excruciating, especially in the larger species such as Polistes major, and can cause inflammation, tissue damage, and in some cases death if the victim is sensitive to venom.
Despite the negative stigma around them, Paper wasps are great forms of biological pest control, especially in gardens, because unlike bees, they are carnivorous and feed on a variety of insect larvae and small insects that harm crops.
fact sheets
COMING SOON!
COMING SOON!
COMING SOON!
COMING SOON!
posters
The Bahamas is home to a wide variety of terrestrial animals, with insects being the most diverse group. Among these, butterflies and moths, part of the Lepidoptera family, are particularly prominent, with over 1,000 documented species. These insects play essential ecological roles, acting as pollinators and food sources for birds and other insects. However, some species are also considered pests for crops. Moths, typically nocturnal and dull in color, have several species that are brightly colored and active during the day. One of the biggest threats to these insect populations is the use of insecticides, particularly during annual mosquito spraying, which has led to a drastic reduction in butterfly and moth numbers. In some areas, like New Providence, this has caused the near-extinction of certain species. Special recognition is given to Dr. D. Lott for her assistance in species identification.
COMING SOON!
COMING SOON!
COMING SOON!
photo gallery
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resources
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Cameron, S.A., 1986. Brood care by males of Polistes major (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, 59(1), pp.183-185.
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ÄŒeŘovský, V., Pohl, J., Yang, Z., Alam, N. and Attygalle, A.B., 2007. Identification of three novel peptides isolated from the venom of the neotropical social wasp Polistes major major. Journal of Peptide Science: An Official Publication of the European Peptide Society, 13(7), pp.445-450.
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Gould, W.P. and Jeanne, R.L., 1984. Polistes wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) as control agents for lepidopterous cabbage pests. Environmental Entomology, 13(1), pp.150-156.
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Jandt, J.M., Tibbetts, E.A. and Toth, A.L., 2014. Polistes paper wasps: a model genus for the study of social dominance hierarchies. Insectes Sociaux, 61, pp.11-27.
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Keasar, T., 2010. Large carpenter bees as agricultural pollinators. Psyche: A Journal of Entomology, 2010(1), p.927463.
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Neumeyer, R., Baur, H., Guex, G.D. and Praz, C., 2014. A new species of the paper wasp genus Polistes (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Polistinae) in Europe revealed by morphometrics and molecular analyses. ZooKeys, (400), p.67.
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Oliveira, S.A.D., Santos Lopes, J.F. and Prezoto, F., 2006. Dominance hierarchy in different stages of development in colonies of the neotropical eusocial paper wasp Polistes versicolor (Hymenoptera, Vespidae). Sociobiology, 48(2), pp.515-526.
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Peck, S.B. and Perez-Gelabert, D.E., 2012. A summary of the endemic beetle genera of the West Indies (Insecta: Coleoptera); bioindicators of the evolutionary richness of this Neotropical archipelago.
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Raju, A.S. and Rao, S.P., 2006. Nesting habits, floral resources and foraging ecology of large carpenter bees (Xylocopa latipes and Xylocopa pubescens) in India. Current science, pp.1210-1217.
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Regier, J.C., Shultz, J.W. and Kambic, R.E., 2005. Pancrustacean phylogeny: hexapods are terrestrial crustaceans and maxillopods are not monophyletic. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 272(1561), pp.395-401.
​ Smithsonian (n.d.). Numbers of Insects (Species and Individuals). Retrieved March 19, 2024, from https://www.si.edu/spotlight/buginfo/bugnos
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​Stork, N.E., 2018. How many species of insects and other terrestrial arthropods are there on Earth?. Annual review of entomology, 63(2018), pp.31-45.
Turnbow Jr, R.H. and Thomas, M.C., 2008. An annotated checklist of the Coleoptera (Insecta) of the Bahamas. Insecta Mundi, p.347.