Vespidae
| Vespidae | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Vespula germanica | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Suborder: | Apocrita |
| Superfamily: | Vespoidea |
| Family: | Vespidae |
| Subfamilies | |
|
Eumeninae: potter wasps |
|
Eumeninae: potter wasps
Euparagiinae
Masarinae: pollen wasps
Polistinae: paper wasps
Stenogastrinae: hover wasps
Vespinae: yellow jackets, hornets
The Vespidae are a large (nearly 5000 species), diverse, cosmopolitan family of wasps, including nearly all the known eusocial wasps (such as Polistes fuscatus, Polistes annularis, and Vespula germanica) and many 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). 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 subfamilies Polistinae and Vespinae are composed solely of eusocial species, while the Eumeninae, Euparagiinae, and Masarinae are all ; the Stenogastrinae subfamily contains a variety of forms from solitary to social.
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Wikipedia