Southern Paper Wasp
S5, Female, Wing Venation
Southern Paper Wasp
S3, Female, posterior
Animals
Plants
Info
| Southern Paper Wasp S5, Female, Wing Venation | | Southern Paper Wasp S3, Female, posterior | | ||
Animals Plants Info |
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | ||||||||||||
| Order: | Ant Bee Wasps (Hymenoptera) | |||||||||||||
| Family: | Potter Wasp (Wasp: Vespidae) iNaturalist Observation | |||||||||||||
| Species: | Southern Paper Wasp (Polistes humilis ssp humilis)| This Photo: | Collecting Water to make Paper | Thank you Kerri-Lee Harris, Tony and Jenny Dominelli (Cinclosoma) & Joshua S. Martin (BioShots_JM) for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found in the Flinders Ranges, Adelaide Hills, Adelaide Plains and possibly elsewhere ~15mm long. These are known to be aggressive, but only if you disturb their nest. Unfortunately gardeners often don't realise a nest is in the hedge they are trimming until they are attacked. Jonathan Hoskins said "The two subspecies do divide fairly decently by location (ssp humilis is the more southern range, ssp synoecus is more northern and the only one introduced to Western Australia). In terms of appearance, ssp humilis is darker with fewer yellow markings on the abdomen and no yellow lines on the propodeum (the rear portion of the thorax). Ssp synoecus is more yellow with more extensive yellow on the thorax and paired yellow lines on the propodeum." James C. Trager said "Males have the yellow faces and curly-tipped antennae." Iskander Kaliananda said "Nests are the product of one dominant Foundress and everyone living there are her children." As such, the Foundress is an effective queen of the nest. Kerri-Lee said, in relation to our quesion of gender, "Males have more extensive yellow on the face and also on the underside of the thorax. It seems males tend to emerge and gather at the nest as the season progresses. Studies also suggest they do little in the way of helping. They may sometimes help macerate the prey that returning hunters (females) deliver ... a trade off for an easy meal themselves, probably. And there are reports of them rarely passing that mushy food to the larvae. It seems they're mainly there on the lookout for a chance to mate with newly-emerging females. It's also likely (but this is pure supposition) that their rather fearsome appearance affords the nest some extra protection (despite their lack of a sting, they can look mean!)". The important take away here is that males can be at the nest, so we can't assume gender on appearance at the nest. With most hymenoptra, males are not seen hanging around the nest.
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