Wasp
The largest social wasp is the Asian giant hornet, at up to in length. The various tarantula hawk wasps are of a similar size and can overpower a spider many times its own weight, and move it to its burrow, with a sting that is excruciatingly painful to humans. The solitary giant scoliid, "Megascolia procer", with a wingspan of 11.5 cm, has subspecies in Sumatra and Java; it is a parasitoid of the Atlas beetle "Chalcosoma atlas". The female giant ichneumon wasp "Megarhyssa macrurus" is long including its very long but slender ovipositor which is used for boring into wood and inserting eggs. The smallest wasps are solitary chalcid wasps in the family Mymaridae, including the world's smallest known insect, "Dicopomorpha echmepterygis" (139 micrometres long) and "Kikiki huna" with a body length of only 158 micrometres, the smallest known flying insect.
Polistes carolina
Like most paper wasps, "P. carolina" constructs nests by chewing plant and wood fibers with saliva to create a paper-like material. When dried, their nests form an upside-down umbrella or dome shape with exposed honeycomb-like cells, opening at the bottom. "P. carolina" prefers to nest in protected spaces, such as naturally occurring locations in vegetation or the cavities of trees. They also frequently nest in man-made structures, such as the underside of bridges, roofs, chimneys, eaves, and wooden boxes. These nests are some of the largest of any wasp species and usually contain around 3,000 to 5,000 members.