Polistes canadensis
| Red Paper Wasp | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Vespidae |
| Subfamily: | Polistinae |
| Tribe: | Polistini |
| Genus: | Polistes |
| Species: | P. canadensis |
| Binomial name | |
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Polistes canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Polistes canadensis, commonly known as the red paper wasp, is a Neotropical, primitively eusocial wasp. A largely predatory species, it hunts for caterpillar meat to supply its colony, often supplementing its developing larvae with nectar. The most widely distributed American species of the Polistes genus, it colonizes multiple combs, which it rears year-round. Emerging from hibernation in the spring, the females found nests built out of plant material such as dry grass and dead wood. These nests are not covered with an envelope and feature hexagonal cells in which eggs are laid and larvae develop. The Polistes canadensis colony divides its colony among several combs and does not reuse these combs as a defense mechanism against parasites such as the tineid moth. A single female queen with, on average, 9.1 foundresses, usually initiates the construction of new combs and cells to form nests. The more foundresses in a colony, the more combs produced. On average, combs grow for 15.4 days and achieve a size of 30.8 cells. One female queen exercises absolute dominance over all other females, often using lateral abdominal vibrations and stroking to suppress the aggressive behavior of her nestmates. While the queen handles all the nest reproduction, the subordinates work to care for, defend, and feed the nest instead. The divisions of labor within the nest correlate with the ages of the red paper wasps. Aside from the female division of labor, male red paper wasps engage in two alternative mating tactics: the role of the territorial male (who chases away intruding patrollers) and the role of the patroller (who flies from tree to tree and does not chase other males). The study of the dominance relations within the Polistes canadensis has provided insight into the social organization that characterizes many social invertebrates.
The Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus described the red paper wasp in 1758. Its species name is a New Latin term used to refer to species associated with Canada. Linnaeus was misinformed about the location of his specimen, because although it has an extensive range throughout the United States, the Polistes canadensis does not reach Canada.
Part of the social vespidae family, the Polistes genus (the paper wasps) marks the transition between solitary and highly social behavior among wasps. The red paper wasp is a member of the New World Polistes, which are found in the subgenus Aphanilopterus. Because morphological variation among the Aphanilopterus is small, many closely related species such as the Polistes annularis (from the Eastern US to Texas), Polistes erythrocephalus (Nicaragua through Brazil), and Polistes infuscatus (northern South America) had been grouped with the red paper wasps as a species, but now have been determined to be distinct species of their own.
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Wikipedia