Vespidae

Information about Vespidae

For the fictional alien race, see .

Vespidae

Southern yellowjacket (Vespula squamosa) queen

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Suborder:	Apocrita
Superfamily:	Vespoidea
Family:	Vespidae

Subfamilies

Eumeninae: potter wasps
Euparagiinae
Masarinae: pollen wasps
Polistinae: paper wasps
Stenogastrinae
Vespinae: yellowjackets, hornets

The Vespidae are a large (nearly 5,000 species), diverse, cosmopolitan family of wasps, including nearly all the known eusocial wasps 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 only last 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).

The subfamilies Polistinae and Vespinae are composed solely of eusocial species, while Eumeninae, Euparagiinae, and Masarinae are all solitary; Stenogastrinae contains a variety of forms from solitary to social.

In Polistinae and Vespinae, rather than consuming prey directly, prey are masticated and fed to the larvae, and the larvae, in return, produce a clear liquid (with high amino acid content) which the adults consume; the exact amino acid composition varies considerable among species, but it is considered to contribute substantially to adult nutrition^[1].

The nest pictured below was made by either the bald-faced hornet (American), Dolichovespula maculata (sometimes classified as Vespula maculata), or the aerial yellowjacket (that is aerial-nesting yellowjacket), Dolichovespula arenaria. The wasp pictured at right is a yellowjacket queen, Vespula squamosa.

European wasp	A hornet nest	A different angle	Polistes nest
Another angle	Another angle	Vespa tropica from India	Vespa crabro (European hornet) stripping wood from a fence for use in nest construction

External links

Evolutionary history of social behavior in Vespids

References

1. ^ Hunt, J. H., I. Baker, and H. G. Baker. 1982. Similarity of amino acids in nectar and larval saliva: the nutritional basis for trophallaxis in social wasps. Evolution 36: 1318-1322

Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Arthropoda
Latreille, 1829

Subphyla and Classes

Subphylum Trilobitomorpha
Trilobita - trilobites (extinct)
Subphylum Chelicerata

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Insecta
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders
Subclass Apterygota

* Archaeognatha (bristletails)

* Thysanura (silverfish)

Subclass Pterygota

* Infraclass Paleoptera (Probably paraphyletic)

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Hymenoptera
Linnaeus, 1758

Suborders

Apocrita
Symphyta

Hymenoptera is one of the larger orders of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants.
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Apocrita

Superfamilies

Aculeata
Superfamily Apoidea
Superfamily Chrysidoidea
Superfamily Vespoidea
Parasitica

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Vespoidea

Families

see text

Vespoidea is a Superfamily of Order Hymenoptera of Class Insecta, although older taxonomic schemes may vary in this categorization, particularly in their recognition of a now-obsolete superfamily Scolioidea.
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Eumeninae

Genera

many (>200)

Potter wasps (or mason wasps) also known as Dirt daubers (or mud daubers) are cosmopolitan wasps that are typically treated as a subfamily of Vespidae, but have in the past sometimes been
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Masarinae

Genera

Celonites
Ceramius
Quartinia
Pseudomasaris
>10 others

Pollen wasps are unusual wasps that are typically treated as a subfamily of Vespidae, but have in the past sometimes been
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Polistinae

Tribes

Polistini
Epiponini
Ropalidiini

The Polistinae are eusocial wasps closely related to the more familiar yellowjackets, but placed in their own subfamily, containing three tribes; it is the second
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Paper wasps are 3/4 inch to 1 inch (2-2.5 cm)-long wasps that gather fibers from dead wood and plant stems, which they mix with saliva, and use to construct water-resistant nests that appear to be made of gray or brown papery material.
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Vespinae

Genera

Dolichovespula
Provespa
Vespa
Vespula

The subfamily Vespinae contains the largest and most well-known eusocial wasps, including true hornets (the genus Vespa
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Vespula or Dolichovespula

“Yellow Jacket” redirects here. For the town in the United States, see Yellow Jacket, Colorado.

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Vespa
Linnaeus, 1758

Species
See text

This article refers collectively to all true hornets. For the common "hornet" of Europe (also introduced in the Americas) see European Hornet.

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wasp is any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is not a bee or ant. The suborder Symphyta includes the sawflies and wood wasps, which differ from members of Apocrita by having a broader connection between the mesosoma and metasoma.
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Eusociality is the phenomenon of reproductive specialization found in some animals. It generally involves the production of sterile members of the species, which carry out specialized tasks, effectively caring for the reproductive members.
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A solitary (Latin solus, meaning alone) person, animal or object is one which is not usually in the companionship of others of its type. Solitary activities are those which do not require (or indeed preclude) the presence of others, such as walking, listening to
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colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception.
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labour (or labor) is a measure of the work done by human beings. It is conventionally contrasted with such other factors of production as land and capital. There are theories which have created a concept called human capital (referring to the skills that workers possess, not
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Paper is thin material used for writing upon, printing upon or packaging, produced by the amalgamation of fibres, typically vegetable fibers composed of cellulose, which are subsequently held together by hydrogen bonding.
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Vespidae

Information about Vespidae

External links

References