Polistes exclamans
| Polistes exclamans | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Vespidae |
| Subfamily: | Polistinae |
| Tribe: | Polistini |
| Genus: | Polistes |
| Species: | P. exclamans |
| Binomial name | |
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Polistes exclamans Viereck, 1906 |
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Polistes exclamans 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 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 easily identifiable physiological characteristics. Since P. exclamans live in relatively small, open combed nests, they are often subject to predators and parasites, such as Chalcoela iphitalis, Elasmus polistes, and birds. P. exclamans have defense and recognition strategies that help protect against these predators and parasites.
Polistes exclamans is part of subfamily Polistinae within the hymenopteran family Vespidae. Polistinae (paper wasps) is the second largest of six vespid subfamilies, containing around 950 species, and is composed entirely of social wasps. It is made up of four tribes; P. exclamans is part of Polistini. Genus Polistes is currently split into four subgenera that are distributed across the world; P. exclamans is a part of the New World subgenus Aphanilopterus and is most closely related to P. annularis, P. buysonni, P. canadensis, P. lanio, P. cavapyta, P. simillimus, P. crinitus, P. versicolor, and P. instabilis.
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