The aculeate wasps are one of the most diverse and speciose insect taxa; they are omnipresent across ecosystems and exhibit diverse co‐evolutionary and exploitative associations with other organisms. There is widespread conjecture that aculeate wasps are likely to perform essential ecological and economic services of importance to the health, well‐being and nutritional needs of our planet. However, the scope and nature of the ecosystem services they provide are not well understood relative to other insect groups (e.g. bees, butterflies, beetles); an appreciation of their value is further tarnished by their public reputation as pointless pests. Here, we conduct the first comprehensive review of how aculeate wasps contribute to the four main areas of ecosystem services: regulatory, provisioning, supporting and cultural services. Uniting data from a large but previously disconnected literature on solitary and social aculeate wasps, we provide a synthesis on how these insects perform important ecosystem services as parasites, predators, biological indicators, pollinators, decomposers and seed dispersers; and their additional services as a sustainable alternative to meat for human consumption, and medicinal potential as sources of research leads for anti‐microbials and cancer treatments. We highlight how aculeate wasps offer substantial, but largely overlooked, economic benefits through their roles in natural pest management and biological control programs. Accordingly, we provide data‐driven arguments for reasons to consider the ecosystem service value of aculeate wasps on a par with other ‘useful’ insects (e.g. bees). Finally, we provide a research roadmap identifying the key areas of research required to capitalise better on the services provided by these important insects.

1. Bees and wasps are important facets of natural capital to be valued by human societies: bees pollinate wild flowers and agricultural crops; wasps regulate arthropod populations, including insect vectors of human diseases and crop pests. Despite the importance of both taxa, bees are universally loved whilst wasps are universally despised. This study explores some of the reasons behind this. 2. Here data are presented from almost 750 members of the public on their perceptions of insects, including bees and wasps. In addition, an analysis is conducted of researcher effort on bees and wasps, using publication numbers of peer‐reviewed papers over the last 37 years, and unpublished conference proceedings at specialist international conferences over the last 16 years. 3. The results show that wasps are indeed universally disliked by the public and moreover are unpopular research taxa among researchers. Words used to describe wasps are emotive and negative, whilst those describing bees are functional and positive. A low level of interest in nature and a lack of knowledge (among the public) and research effort (among scientists) regarding the ecosystem services of wasps are likely to be at the root of the negative perception. Whilst the ecosystem services of bees are well understood by the public, those provided by wasps are poorly understood. 4. Positive action to promote research on wasps and to overhaul the public image of wasps via outreach and the media could help to reset the imbalance in appreciation of two of the world's most ecologically important taxa. Cultural shifts to a more positive attitude towards wasps could be pivotal in working with these facets of natural capital, rather than against them.

The aim of this paper is to examine whether current and/or Pleistocene geography affect the species richness and composition of Tuscan archipelago butterflies. This archipelago is located between Tuscany (Italy) and Corsica (France). Faunistic data was obtained from the literature and surveys. Our data revealed that contemporary geography is the most important factor determining the species richness and faunal composition of Tuscan archipelago butterflies. Indeed, current area and isolation of the islands are the only predictors significantly correlated with species richness. Paleogeographic features of the archipelago are not significantly correlated with species richness. Multidimensional scaling revealed patterns similar to those reported for other living groups. Specifically, Capraia and Montecristo group together with Corsica, while Elba, Giglio, Pianosa, Gorgona, Giannutri and the fossil island of Monte Argentario group with the Tuscan mainland. Recent geography seems to affect the faunal composition. Indeed Mantel test indicates that the similarity in the faunal composition of the Tuscan Archipelago islands is mainly related to present-day island characteristics and their relative distance from Tuscany and Corsica. Our results are similar to those recently obtained for Aegean archipelago butterflies.

1. Invasive alien species are a major threat to biodiversity. In addition to predation and parasitism, native species might suffer from competition when invasive alien species occupy a similar ecological niche. 2. This study focused on the potential interspecific interaction between two hornets: the Asian yellow‐legged hornet, Vespa velutina , a high‐concern invasive alien species recently arrived in Europe; and the native European hornet, Vespa crabro . The two species share a similar ecological niche and V. velutina is rapidly expanding across Europe, which suggests that V. crabro might suffer from competition. 3. Under laboratory‐controlled conditions, two life‐history traits that might cause the two species to compete were investigated: (i) the ability of workers to find food sources and their flexibility in exploiting them (through individual food item choice tests and exploration assays); and (ii) the worker resistance to pathogens (through immune challenge tests). 4. The results show that trophic preference of both species highly overlaps, with a marked dietary preference for honeybees compared with other insect prey and non‐prey protein items. No differences were observed in the exploratory behaviour of both species. Finally, constitutive antibacterial activity was greater in workers of the native species than in workers of the invasive hornet. 5. This laboratory study provides a first assessment under controlled conditions of the factors affecting competition between workers of two hornet species and proposes a framework to assess, in wild contexts, the magnitude of the competition and the impact of the introduced V. velutina on the native V. crabro .