Polistinae
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Polistinae
The Polistinae is a subfamily of eusocial wasps belonging to the Family (biology), family Vespidae. They are closely related to the more familiar wasps (“yellowjackets” as they are called in North America) and true hornets of the subfamily Vespinae, containing four tribes. With about 1,100 species total, it is the second-most diverse subfamily within the Vespidae, and while most species are tropical or subtropical, they include some of the most frequently encountered large wasps in temperate regions. The Polistinae are also known as paper wasps, which is a misleading term, since other wasps (including the wasps in the subfamily Vespinae) also build nests out of paper, and because some epiponine wasps (e.g., ''Polybia emaciata'') build theirs out of mud, nonetheless, the name "paper wasp" seems to apply mostly, but not exclusively, to the Polistinae, especially the Polistini. Many polistines, such as ''Polistes fuscatus,'' ''Polistes annularis'', and ''Polistes exclamans'', m ...
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Polistes Bellicosus
''Polistes bellicosus'' is a social paper wasp from the order Hymenoptera typically found within Texas, namely the Houston area.Predation and the Evolution of Sociality in the Paper Wasp Polistes Bellicosus Joan E. Strassmann, David C. Queller and Colin R. Hughes Ecology, Vol. 69, No. 5 (Oct., 1988), pp. 1497-1505 Like other paper wasps, ''Polistes bellicosus'' build nests by manipulating exposed fibers into paper to create cells. ''P. bellicosus'' often rebuild their nests at least once per colony season due to predation. Taxonomy and phylogeny ''Polistes bellicosus'' belongs to the subfamily Polistinae, which consists of only social wasps. Polistinae is divided into four tribes: Polistini, Epiponini, Mischocyttarini and Ropalidiini.Arévalo, Elisabeth. Zhu, Yong. Carpenter, James. Strassmann, Joan. The phylogeny of the social wasp subfamily Polistinae: evidence from microsatellite flanking sequences, mitochondrial COI sequence, and morphological characters. BMC Evolutionary B ...
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Polistini
Wasps of the cosmopolitan genus ''Polistes'' (the only genus in the tribe Polistini) are the most familiar of the Polistinae, polistine wasps, and are the most common type of paper wasp in North America. Walter Ebeling coined the vernacular name "umbrella wasps" for this genus in 1975 to distinguish it from other types of paper wasp, in reference to the form of their nests. It is also the single largest genus within the family Vespidae, with over 300 recognized species and subspecies. Their innate preferences for nest-building sites leads them to commonly build nests on human habitation, where they can be very unwelcome; although generally not aggressive, they can be provoked into defending their nests. All species are predatory, and they may consume large numbers of caterpillars, in which respect they are generally considered beneficial. The European paper wasp, ''Polistes dominula'', was introduced into the US about 1981 and has quickly spread throughout most of the country, in ...
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Paper Wasp
Paper wasps are Vespidae, vespid wasps that gather fibers from dead wood and plant stems, which they mix with saliva, and use to construct nests made of gray or brown papery material. Some types of paper wasps are also sometimes called umbrella wasps, due to the distinctive design of their nests."Paper Wasp"
Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2006.


Species

The name "paper wasps" typically refers to members of the Vespidae, vespid subfamily Polistinae, though it often colloquially includes members of the subfamilies Vespinae (hornets and yellowjackets) and Stenogastrinae, which also make nests out of paper. Twenty-two species of ''Polistes'' paper wasps have been identified in North America and approximately 300 species have been identified worldwide. The most common ...
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Polistes
Wasps of the cosmopolitan genus ''Polistes'' (the only genus in the tribe Polistini) are the most familiar of the polistine wasps, and are the most common type of paper wasp in North America. Walter Ebeling coined the vernacular name "umbrella wasps" for this genus in 1975 to distinguish it from other types of paper wasp, in reference to the form of their nests. It is also the single largest genus within the family Vespidae, with over 300 recognized species and subspecies. Their innate preferences for nest-building sites leads them to commonly build nests on human habitation, where they can be very unwelcome; although generally not aggressive, they can be provoked into defending their nests. All species are predatory, and they may consume large numbers of caterpillars, in which respect they are generally considered beneficial. The European paper wasp, ''Polistes dominula'', was introduced into the US about 1981 and has quickly spread throughout most of the country, in most cases ...
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Polistes Nest
Wasps of the cosmopolitan genus ''Polistes'' (the only genus in the tribe Polistini) are the most familiar of the polistine wasps, and are the most common type of paper wasp in North America. Walter Ebeling coined the vernacular name "umbrella wasps" for this genus in 1975 to distinguish it from other types of paper wasp, in reference to the form of their nests. It is also the single largest genus within the family Vespidae, with over 300 recognized species and subspecies. Their innate preferences for nest-building sites leads them to commonly build nests on human habitation, where they can be very unwelcome; although generally not aggressive, they can be provoked into defending their nests. All species are predatory, and they may consume large numbers of caterpillars, in which respect they are generally considered beneficial. The European paper wasp, ''Polistes dominula'', was introduced into the US about 1981 and has quickly spread throughout most of the country, in most cases ...
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Polistes Annularis
''Polistes annularis'' (''P. annularis'') is a species of paper wasp found throughout the eastern half of the United States. This species of red paper wasp is known for its large size and its red-and-black coloration and is variably referred to as a ringed paper wasp or jack Spaniard wasp. It builds its nest under overhangs near bodies of water that minimize the amount of sunlight penetration.Queller, David C., and Joan E. Strassmann. "Reproductive success and group nesting in the paper wasp, ''Polistes annularis''." Reproductive Success: Studies of Individual Variation in Contrasting Breeding Systems, 1988, p. 76-96. It clusters its nests together in large aggregations, and consumes nectar and other insects. Its principal predator is the ant, although birds are also known to prey on it. Unlike other wasps, ''P. annularis'' is relatively robust in winter conditions, and has also been observed to store honey in advance of hibernation. This species has also been used as a model spe ...
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Polistes Fuscatus
''Polistes fuscatus'', whose common name is the dark or northern paper wasp, is widely found in eastern North America, from southern Canada through the southern United States. It often nests around human development. However, it greatly prefers areas in which wood is readily available for use as nest material, therefore they are also found near and in woodlands and savannas.Evans, H. (1963). ''Wasp Farm.'' Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ''P. fuscatus'' is a social wasp that is part of a complex society based around a single dominant foundress along with other cofoundresses and a dominance hierarchy. Taxonomy and phylogeny ''P. fuscatus'' is a part of the order Hymenoptera, the suborder Apocrita, the family of Vespidae, and the subfamily Polistinae, the second-largest subfamily within the Vespidae, of which all are social wasps.Arevalo, Elisabeth, Yong Zhu, James Carpenter, and Joan Strassmann. (2004). The Phylogeny of the Social Wasp Subfamily Polistinae: Evidencefrom Microsate ...
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Polistes Exclamans
''Polistes exclamans'', the Guinea paper wasp, is a social wasp and is part of the family Vespidae of the order Hymenoptera. It is found throughout the United States, Mexico, the Bahamas, Jamaica and parts of Canada. Due to solitary nest founding by queens, ''P. exclamans'' has extended its range in the past few decades and now covers the eastern half of the United States, as well as part of the north. This expansion is typically attributed to changing global climate and temperatures. ''P. exclamans'' has three specific castes, including males, workers, and queens, but the dominance hierarchy is further distinguished by age. The older the wasp is, the higher it is in ranking within the colony. In most ''P. exclamans'' nests, there is one queen who lays all the eggs in the colony. The physiological similarities between the worker and queen castes have led to experiments attempting to distinguish the characteristics of these two castes and how they are determined, though males have ...
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Vespidae
The Vespidae are a large (nearly 5000 species), diverse, cosmopolitan family of wasps, including nearly all the known eusocial wasps (such as ''Polistes fuscatus'', ''Vespa orientalis'', and ''Vespula germanica'') and many solitary wasps. Each social wasp colony includes a queen and a number of female workers with varying degrees of sterility relative to the queen. In temperate social species, colonies usually last only one year, dying at the onset of winter. New queens and males (drones) are produced towards the end of the summer, and after mating, the queens hibernate over winter in cracks or other sheltered locations. The nests of most species are constructed out of mud, but polistines and vespines use plant fibers, chewed to form a sort of paper (also true of some stenogastrines). Many species are pollen vectors contributing to the pollination of several plants, being potential or even effective pollinators, while others are notable predators of pest insect species. The sub ...
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Eusocial
Eusociality (from Greek εὖ ''eu'' "good" and social), the highest level of organization of sociality, is defined by the following characteristics: cooperative brood care (including care of offspring from other individuals), overlapping generations within a colony of adults, and a division of labor into reproductive and non-reproductive groups. The division of labor creates specialized behavioral groups within an animal society which are sometimes referred to as 'castes'. Eusociality is distinguished from all other social systems because individuals of at least one caste usually lose the ability to perform at least one behavior characteristic of individuals in another caste. Eusocial colonies can be viewed as superorganisms. Eusociality exists in certain insects, crustaceans, and mammals. It is mostly observed and studied in the Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps) and in Blattodea (termites). A colony has caste differences: queens and reproductive males take the roles of the so ...
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Brachygastra
Honey wasps are species in the genus ''Brachygastra'' of the family Vespidae. ''Brachygastra'' comprises 17 species of social paper wasps. The ancestral species are thought to have diverged about 32 million years ago within diverse Amazonian rainforest. Subsequent speciation within the genus is thought to have mostly occurred between 23 Ma and 10 Ma, during the time of the Andean uplift when the landscape was significantly altered due to tectonic activity. The current cladistic organisation of the genus has been heavily reliant on morphological characteristics. ''Brachygastra'' species live in colonies and construct arboreal paper nests in humid forest environments, although several species occur in open vegetation. They are widely distributed in Central and South America, and also occur in southwest areas of North America. They have a broad diet consisting of floral nectar and insect protein. Several species are known to collect and store nectar in large amounts as honey, a cha ...
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Polistes Bischoffi
''Polistes bischoffi'' is a species of paper wasps belonging to the family Vespidae. Description ''Polistes bischoffi'' has a wingspan of and a body length of in females. These wasps are characterized by a blackish upper side of the antennae, by black cheeks and yellow jaws. The clypeus is yellow with a large black central stripe. Males show a yellow face. The body markings are variable. Biology Adults fly from spring to autumn feeding on sugar and nectar and catching caterpillars and flies to feed the larvae. Males die before winter after mating, while mated females overwinter and in next spring build the cells of their nests made of a kind of thin paper. These nests are usually located outside of buildings or hooked to a plant stem or a trunk. Distribution and habitat This species is present in the Mediterranean region, in Southern and Central Europe (Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland), in the Balkan mountains and in the Near East The ''Near East''; he, המ ...
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