Hello Georg,
>What kind of wasps/bees do we speak about?<
Your question is pertinent because there are tens of thousands of species of bees, but well over 100000 species of wasps, which technically speaking, include the bees.
However, in the context of this (very frequent) question, “bees” means honeybees – just a few species world-wide, and in particular various “races” or “subspecies” depending on who is arguing. Sometimes it includes a few carpenter bees or bumble bees, but that is about that. It excludes almost all real bees, by far the most of which are solitary, “sociable”, or subsocial. Most people simply don’t even notice most of the bees they see, most of them being less than half the size of the common honeybee (and very cute at that.)
Wasps are even more varied than bees (vastly more!) but most people asking such a question are speaking of the social or sub-social wasps, such as the hornets (Vespula, Vespa and similar genera) and the other paper wasps such as Polistes. Interest in other wasp stings is largely academic, because most other wasps either cannot sting, or almost never sting.
- Is it really true that wasps survive stinging ?
Generally (artificially not counting stinging social bees as wasps, and ignoring stingless social bees) yes, if they do not get killed by the gesticulating, capering and (one grieves to confess it, frequently execrating) adversary. This I need not defend by recourse to textbooks, because I have been in a position to research it personally in the case of a couple of species of Polistes and Belonogaster. I understand that much the same applies to Vespula and Vespa spp.
Note that I say: “Generally”. Their stings are generally slightly barbed as well, though they are inclined to sit and sting repeatedly and fairly rapidly. The barbs are far less developed than those of honeybee stings. I suspect that the use of such lesser barbs is so that the sting can remain in to ensure a sizeable injection before being withdrawn. However, though I have not seen it myself, I understand that sometimes a wasp’s sting will stick and be torn from the body of the wasp, no doubt fatally. It is difficult to be sure of the facts and relevance of the matter though, because a sting could be wrenched out if the insect is swept off the skin from one side, possibly of the skin itself were stretched at the same time, thereby gripping the sting so that it could not be released. Such things happen; in fact, one way of killing a mosquito is by stretching the skin so that it cannot get its proboscis (not sting!) out of the skin. That is a laborious way of killing mozzies though.
I do not know of any bee or wasp with a more heavily barbed sting than that of the honeybees, but then I also do not know of any comparative study. It also is hard to get much information on say carpenter bees, because most species rarely sting.
What your father said is generally correct of course, as one could guess when looking at the anatomy of an insect. I would hesitate to accept the opinion unconditionally, because I have seen what happens if one attempts to anaesthetise bees with say, ether. They collapse, but their stings keep going and they generally sting each other to death in the process. You then can lift out whole strings of dead bees linked by their stings. Quite horrifying. But though they stand a better chance of surviving stinging a fellow-bee, it does not follow that they never lose a sting in the process.
In case anyone does need to anaesthetise bees, or any other insect I have seen it tried on, the best, safest, and cheapest is (surprisingly to me) CO2!
>So with respect to evolution: was the hook at a bees stinger developed to work on strange bees trying to steal honey, or to deter mammals, which exist not as long as bees?<
That certainly is a thoughtful and penetrating (pun inadvertent!) question. We speak, not of hooks, but barbs, but of course that does not affect the question. I must admit in advance that my reply to that excellent question, that I should have thought of myself, if I had not been too silly, is not to be taken as being in any way authoritative, but positively speculative.
Now, one point to clarify first: mammals are actually of a far more ancient lineage than most people realise. Not only were there mammal-like reptiles, in particular Therapsids well into the Permian, but the first “true” mammals date back to the late Triassic at least. Last I read, social insects stem from early Cretaceous or possibly mid-Jurassic.
But that point is largely academic, because there were plenty of other bulky animals at that time, that might well have raided social insect nests and responded to stings. Also there are stingless bees even today that bite and get up nostrils and spit acid and so on.
As for inter-insect social warfare, it is hard to be sure of anything but that it is ancient enough to have undergone whole generations of macro-evolution. Consider the relationship between Apis cerana japonica and Vespa mandarinia japonica, the Asian giant hornet. (There are useful Wikipedia articles on both.) The hornet attacks the bees, being so armoured as to be effectively invulnerable to the stings, but the bees (unlike Apis mellifera) have evolved an strategy of forming a suicide ball around the hornets where they raise a temperature fatal to the hornets, but bearable to the bees!
That did not evolve overnight!
>Second question: What about the stinger of the common wasps? Is there a hook? I don't know.<
Well, as I remarked, most of the aculeate (sting-bearing) social or sub-social Hymenoptera have some degree of barbs in the stings, but not generally as highly developed as in honeybees. No other insect, as far as I know, routinely loses its sting in attacking an enemy.
But as I am sure that you can tell, it is a large subject!
