Aggression
The common wasp will, like bees, aggressively defend its nest. But unlike bees, which die after stinging, the common wasp can sting multiple times. This makes its sting viable for personal defense when away from the colony, and the common wasp is therefore more prone to stinging. However, it will usually not sting without being provoked by sudden movement or other violent behavior.
Research indicates the wasps use odor to identify and attack rival wasps from other colonies, and nest odor frequently changes. V. vulgaris wasps have been observed aggressively competing with honey bees for the honeydew secreted by the scale insect Ultracoelostoma brittini in New Zealand's South Island black beech forests.
Read more about this topic: Vespula Vulgaris
Famous quotes containing the word aggression:
“I have no concern with any economic criticisms of the communist system; I cannot enquire into whether the abolition of private property is expedient or advantageous. But I am able to recognize that the psychological premises on which the system is based are an untenable illusion. In abolishing private property we deprive the human love of aggression of one of its instruments ... but we have in no way altered the differences in power and influence which are misused by aggressiveness.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
“Every day, in this mostly male world, you have to figure out, “Do I get this by charming somebody? By being strong? Or by totally allowing my aggression out?” You’ve got to risk failure. The minute you want to keep power—you’ve become subservient, somebody who does work you don’t believe in.”
—Paula Weinstein (b. 1945)
“In any case, raw aggression is thought to be the peculiar province of men, as nurturing is the peculiar province of women.... The psychologist Erik Erikson discovered that, while little girls playing with blocks generally create pleasant interior spaces and attractive entrances, little boys are inclined to pile up the blocks as high as they can and then watch them fall down: “the contemplation of ruins,” Erikson observes, “is a masculine specialty.””
—Joyce Carol Oates (b. 1938)