Body Parts of a Wasp – Labeled Side and Top Diagram

All 12 parts on the diagram

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From the side 9

Head The first of the three body sections. It carries the eyes, the antennae and the mouthparts.
Antennae Two long, thread-like sense organs on the front of the head.
Compound eyes Two large eyes, one on each side of the head.
Mandibles Jaws made for biting and cutting. Paper wasps use them to chew wood, which they mix with saliva to make the paper of the nest.
Thorax The middle body section. The six legs and the four wings are all joined to it.
Legs Six legs, three on each side. A paper wasp's long hind legs hang down when it flies.
Waist The narrow joint between the thorax and the abdomen. A thin waist is how you tell wasps, bees and ants from their broad-waisted relatives, the sawflies.
Abdomen The rear body section. On a paper wasp it is long and shaped like a spindle, often with bands of color.
Stinger A changed egg-laying tube, so only females have one. A paper wasp can use it more than once.

From above 3

Ocelli Three small simple eyes in a triangle on top of the head.
Forewing The larger of the two wings on each side. At rest a paper wasp folds its wings lengthwise along its body.
Hind wing The smaller wing behind each forewing. A row of tiny hooks on its front edge holds the two wings together in flight.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30 in at least two of these: Wikipedia, Wasp, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasp; North Carolina State University, ENT 425, Order Hymenoptera, https://genent.cals.ncsu.edu/insect-identification/order-hymenoptera/; Texas A&M AgriLife and Colorado State University Extension paper wasp pages; University of Minnesota Extension, Missouri Department of Conservation and University of Kentucky wasp pages; OpenStax Biology 2e 28.6; Comstock, A Manual for the Study of Insects (1895); Amateur Entomologists' Society, Hymenoptera. The sources list says which source gave what. Detail lines are in our own words. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

These are the body parts of a wasp, drawn on a paper wasp: first from the side, then from above with the wings spread. Read each name, then name the parts yourself.

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Front to back, then the wings

Numbers 1 to 9 are on the wasp from the side, from front to back: the head with its antennae, eyes and mandibles, the thorax and legs, the thin waist, the abdomen and the stinger. Numbers 10 to 12 are on the wasp from above: the three ocelli on top of the head, the forewing and the smaller hind wing.

Head, thorax, abdomen: every insect has these three sections, in this order.
The waist is the quickest part to spot: it is far thinner than the sections on either side of it.

Questions and answers

How many body parts does a wasp have?

Three main sections, like every insect: the head, the thorax and the abdomen. A thin waist joins the thorax to the abdomen. The six legs and the four wings are all attached to the thorax.

What is the difference between a wasp and a bee?

Look at the body. Wasps such as yellowjackets are hard and shiny with few hairs, and paper wasps are slender with long legs. Honey bees look fuzzy, and part of each hind leg is flattened for collecting pollen.

Do all wasps have a stinger?

No. The stinger is a changed egg-laying tube, so only females have one. Male wasps cannot sting.

How many wings does a wasp have?

Four: a large forewing and a smaller hind wing on each side. Tiny hooks on the hind wing hold the pair together, so in flight the two can look like one wing.