northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here's a Metric Paper Wasp I met last summer. Despite their name, these wasps are not a meter in size; they're about an inch in length. 😀 These wasps are umbrella wasps , and I've talked about other umbrella wasps before: Dark Paper Wasps Guinea Paper Wasps European Paper Wasps The European Paper Wasp is an invasive species that's known to replace our Dark Paper Wasp, but they're probably a bit of a threat to outcompete our Metric Paper Wasps too. Like most of their relatives, Metric Paper Wasps are eusocial : Females cooperatively raise their young. Multiple generations live together in a nest. Dividing labor between reproductive and non-reproductive members of a nest. It sounds like a colony starts each spring with 1 or more "foundresses" who were fertilized before winter. (Though there can be multiple foundresses, there's typically an alpha foundress that takes charge and who does most of the egg-laying.) They lay eggs that develop into female wor...

Here's a fairly common wasp that's fairly happy building nests on the ceilings of outdoor structures: Guinea Paper Wasps . I believe this particular nest was under the green-roof pavilion near Duke Farms' Orientation Center. I had trouble getting a good picture because I had to shoot through some wire mesh; I have some sharper pictures here . Guinea Paper Wasps and all their wasp, bee, and ant relatives are haplodiploid insects. This is when sex determination is determined by egg fertilization; no X or Y chromosomes are involved. Unfertilized eggs develop into males/drones while fertilized eggs develop into females. This has some interesting characteristics: If a female mates with only one male, her daughters will (on average) share 75% of their genes since they inherit 50% of their mother's genes but 100% of their father's genes. Because males come from a female's unfertilized eggs, they inherit all their genes from their mothers. Males have no fathers but can...

Bees aren't our only pollinators, as this Dark Paper Wasp demonstrates. The paper wasps are generally considered less aggressive than yellowjackets and hornets  but will sting if they get the impression they or their nests are threatened. Though named the Dark Paper Wasp, its darkness varies geographically. Generally speaking, well north of me (southern Canada or northern New York/New England) the yellow stripes will be on a black abdomen, while south of me (southern US) they tend to look more reddish. These wasps are considered eusocial : they cooperate in raising young, multiple generations live together, and there's some specialization of duties. They're not as eusocial as some insects where soldiers, foragers, and tending to their young are distinctive jobs. Their lifecycle is basically like this: At the end of summer, males and reproductive females grow to adulthood. This generation of males/females breed. The males then die while the new females congregate someplac...

This summer I spotted some Guinea Paper Wasps . Based on the name, I thought the might be an invasive species from Guinea , or a namesake lik e  Equitorial Guinea ,  Guinea-Bissau ,  Papua New Guinea , or  Western New Guinea . But it turns out they are a native species, and it's surmised that the name came from this locality in Virginia or this other locality in Virginia . (They're more American than any Europeans, or any other humans.) These wasps are considered paper wasps  since they make nests by chewing up wood and other tough plant fibers to make their papery nests. (Paper wasp isn't a great taxonomic term though, since some of their close relatives make mud nests while some distantly related wasps make paper nests.) They are eusocial insects, meaning they collectively share in the raising of young, a nest supports multiple generations, and the nest has a hierarchy of roles. Unlike some eusocial insects though, there's no apparent anatomic difference be...