solitary wasp

English

Noun

solitary wasp (plural solitary wasps)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see solitary,‎ wasp.
2. (dated) An informal taxonomic grouping of genera of wasps that included most of those with solitary habits.
   • 1824, Oliver Goldsmith, A history of the earth, and animated nature, volume 5, pages 156–7:

     In the principal species of the Solitary Wasps, the insect is smaller than the working wasp of the social kind.

   • 1860, William Somerville Orr, Richard Owen, Robert Gordon Latham, Organic Nature: Botany, structural and systematic, page 395:

     The Solitary Wasps usually make their nests of clay or agglutinated sand, generally attaching them to walls and palings; a few also burrow in sandy ground.

   • 1875, British Bee Journal, volume 3, page 78:

     The true wasps (Diploptera) are divided into two families, Eumenides and Vespides. The fore-wings are folded longitudinally in repose. The solitary wasps much resemble the Fossores in their habits ; and differ from the social wasps in having bifid claws.

Coordinate terms

• social wasp

References

• “solitary wasp”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.