Bug FAQSynoeca surinama
Synoeca surinama · Order: Hymenoptera · Family: Vespidae
Source: Wikipedia
Synoeca surinama is a medium-sized wasp with a metallic blue-black body that shines in the light. It builds nests on tree trunks in tropical South America and forages in wet grasslands, shrub areas, and gallery forests.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
The wasp has a metallic blue-black coloration and a painful sting. Its head shows a projecting vertex. The dorsal and lateral propodeum have sparse punctation, unlike some related species.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
It is medium-sized and appears blue-black, looking metallic in certain light.
Source: Wikipedia
Does it bite or sting?
Stings are painful and the stinger is left in the victim, killing the wasp. They sting only in defense, not to attack prey. Their venom contains serotonin, a vasoconstrictor that can be lethal to small animals. The vasoconstrictor triggers severe pain by falsely signaling a serious wound to the brain.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
Nests are built on tree trunks in tropical South American forests. It also occurs in wet grasslands, scattered shrub areas, sparse shrubs and trees, and gallery forests.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
Adults visit flowering plants and act as pollinators.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
Social environmental conditions decide whether a developing larva becomes a queen or a worker. Queens and workers look almost the same, showing little morphological difference.
Source: Wikipedia
When you see it
During the dry season the nests are on tree trunks in gallery forest, but the wasps forage in all listed habitats year-round.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
It is native to tropical regions of South America.
Source: Wikipedia
Lookalikes
It can be confused with S. chalibea and S. virginea, but those have dense propodeal punctation, while S. surinama has sparse punctation.
Source: Wikipedia
More photos
Questions people ask
How painful is the sting?
The sting is painful because the venom contains serotonin, a vasoconstrictor that causes severe pain.
Source: Wikipedia
Do they sting only when threatened?
They sting only in defense, not to hunt or attack.
Source: Wikipedia
Where do they build their nests?
They build nests on tree trunks in tropical South American forests and gallery forests during the dry season.
Source: Wikipedia
How can I tell them apart from similar wasps?
They have less dense punctation on the dorsal and lateral propodeum compared with S. chalibea and S. virginea.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Vespidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synoeca_surinama
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-24 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.