Hello,

I have a minor in entomology and just witnessed something for the first time: a wasp chasing down and repeatedly stinging another wasp. They were two different species, the attacker was larger than the victim. They flew away (one right on the tail of the other) before I was able to record it.

I've Google this and have come up with ZERO results, other than an obscure forum in the UK where someone asked if a wasp would "fight" another, and the answer was "probably not, but anything is possible".

Has anyone else seen this? The wasps have been very aggressive around our house this year, but I've never seen this before. I don't believe the aggressor was a parasitoid wasp and I'm not aware of a parasitoid that preys on other wasps. The aggressor was VERY aggressively attacking the other and they were both black and yellow striped.

Suggestions? Thanks!

I just put 'wasps fighting?' in as a Google search and pulled up loads of info.
https://www.google.com/#q=wasps+fighting%3F

Possibly you witnessed two fertile females in a battle for queenship of a new nest. Yellowjacket wasps do that almost every time they start a new nest.