Opinion: Five facts about the gruesome beauty of solitary wasps

Writing in The Conversation, Professor Seirian Sumner (UCL Biosciences) shares some of the wildest and most shocking facts about solitary wasps, borrowed from her new book "Endless forms: The secret world of wasps." Most people recognise a wasp as those stripy insects who ruin our summer picnics. They live in huge societies, much the same as the honeybee; you might even have a nest in your loft or shed. But there's a lot more to wasps than these socialites. In fact, the vast majority of wasp species (almost 99%) prefer to go it alone and don't live in colonies. These are solitary insects: the adults are assassins and the young feast on the bodies of the living. Sound gruesome? That's because it is.