Barbed War Wasps are the more dangerous cousins of the War Wasp and are commonly green. A colony of them resided in the same room as the Incinerator Drone was in. The wasps attacked Samus when she damaged the machine, causing it to shoot fire into their nest. Once the machine destroyed the nest, Samus never encountered Barbed War Wasps again in Metroid Prime. They returned in Metroid Prime Hunters where they were in the Ice hive in Arcterra and appeared when an electric charge went through the hives. In that game there were two variations of the regular version: Blue Barbed War Wasp and Red Barbed War Wasp as well as the original version.
Barbed War Wasps attack by launching a poisonous stinger, which does a small amount of damage and slight visor interference. In Metroid Prime, they were the only War Wasps to have a ranged attack, yet in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes the normal War Wasps attack with an energy beam.
These wasps make their nests on the celing rather than the usual wall nests and seem to prefer/be resiliant to hotter temperatures shown by the way that they made their nest in the Burn Dome and that the Incinerator Drone merely agitated them instead of killing them with its flame thrower.
Unlike standard and Ram War Wasps, the horns on the shells of Barbed War Wasps curve up and forward over their heads.
Logbook Entries
Metroid Prime
Barbed War Wasp
"Airborne insect with the ability to launch its stinger at prey. A highly aggressive member of the War Wasp family, this insect can propel the tip of its stinger up to 20 meters. The stinger tips regrow seconds after launch and contain an acidic compound designed to predigest prey."
Metroid Prime Hunters
Barbed War Wasp
"An aggressively territorial insect capable of launching its stinger as a projectile. The more dangerous cousin of the War Wasp, Barbed War Wasps migrate in large swarms, attacking even the largest life-forms in isolated regions of Tallon IV."
Red Barbed War Wasp
"One of the most aggressive varieties of wasp, the Red Barbed War Wasp uses body heat to generate an igneous projectile."
Blue Barbed War Wasp
"A mutated form of the Red Barbed War Wasp, the metabolism of the Blue Barbed War Wasp requires a frozen environment to produce endothermic projectiles."
