First Wasp of the Year

Images taken in a controlled environment or with a posed subject. All subject types.

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Olympusman
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First Wasp of the Year

Post by Olympusman »

Found this guy bumping arounds on a window in my living room. Not surprised to find out it is a Polistes dominulus, which appears to be the primary wasp species around here, to the exclusion of other species.
Polistes dominulus 2.jpg
Michael Reese Much FRMS EMS Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

rjlittlefield
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Re: First Wasp of the Year

Post by rjlittlefield »

Nice image, but this does not look at all like Polistes dominulus. That immigrant is bright yellow and black; this image shows on my monitor as a rich reddish orange. Based on the color, I'm thinking one of the natives, maybe P. fuscatus or P. carolina.

--Rik

MarkSturtevant
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Re: First Wasp of the Year

Post by MarkSturtevant »

An excellent stack. You are right about the growing presence of P. dominulus. The European paper wasp is displacing native paper wasps, mainly b/c they start their nests earlier and so take the 'good' spots.
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

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