European Paper Wasp on Nest

Description:

This wasp made its nest on a lavender branch!

Habitat:

City of Milpitas, CA City Hall landscape area.

Notes:

The nests of most true paper wasps are characterized by having open combs with cells for brood rearing, and a 'petiole', or constricted stalk, that anchors the nest. Paper wasps secrete a chemical which repels ants, which they spread around the base of the anchor to prevent the loss of eggs orbrood. Most social wasps of the family Vespidae make nests from paper, but some stenogastrine species, such asLiostenogaster flavolineata, use mud. A small group of eusocial crabronid wasps, of the genus Microstigmus (the only eusocial wasps outside the family Vespidae), also construct nests out of chewed plant fibers, though the nest consistency is quite different from those of true paper wasps, due to the absence of wood fibers, and the use of silk to bind the fibers. Wikipedia