Posted March 16, 2017
Several months ago, while doing research on all pollinators other than bees, I learned that there is a "Mexican honey wasp," Brachygastra mellifica. So we went back into all recent photos of "bees and wasps" and found that we had photographed a honey wasp in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, the first week of November 2016.
Today I asked one of our plant scouts if he knew these insects, and I was really surprised that he was fully aware of these wasps which make honey. He lives in the Ixbolai river area of Peten (that is my rough phonetic spelling of the Q’eqchi’ word for this river).
He said that there was a giant nest of this honey wasp in his milpa and he had to burn it out since the wasps were stinging him every time he went to his milpa.
The Honey Wasp, on an Amaranth flower, Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, Guatemala. Photo by Maria Alejandra Gutierrez Mendez, photographer at FLAAR.
