Polistes fuscatus
| Polistes fuscatus | |
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| Polistes fuscatus from Quebec; lateral view | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Vespidae |
| Genus: | Polistes |
| Species: | P. fuscatus |
| Binomial name | |
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Polistes fuscatus (Fabricius, 1793) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Polistes fuscatus, whose common name is the golden or northern paper wasp, is widely found throughout southern Canada, the United States, and Central America. 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.P. fuscatus is a social wasp that is part of a complex society based around a single dominant queen along with other cofoundresses and a dominance hierarchy.
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. The Polistinae comprise four tribes, including Polistini, Epiponini, Mischocyttarini, and Ropalidiini. It is characterized by two major behaviors: colony founding and reproductive dominance. Colony founding can be either independent or swarm founding. Independent founding consists of the founding of small, simple nests that are constructed without a paper envelope by a single or few queens with one or several inseminated egg-layers and no workers. Swarm founding includes the construction of large swarms and are founded by multiple queens with many workers.P. fuscatus is part of the Polistini tribe and in the genus Polistes. Polistes is one of the five independent-founding groups. A study in which bootstrap analysis was conducted indicated that P. fuscatus is part of the New World subgenera: Fuscopolistes. In addition to P. fuscatus, within Fuscopolistes are P. bellicosus, P. apaches, P. aurifer, P. carolina, P. dorsalis, and P. metricus, all of which are the closest relatives of P. fuscatus.
The physical characteristics of the P. fuscatus are highly dependent on the geographic location of its habitat. Throughout the United States, three color pattern trends represent different regions throughout the country. The male is identified by its darkened apical flagellomeres in addition to its darkened dorsal surface of the apical flagellomeres that is common to other species of wasps. Northern females on the other hand are easily identified by the blackening of their entire bodies which may or may not have markings of other colors. Many southern P. fuscatus individuals, however, have additional markings and may resemble wasps of other species.
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Wikipedia