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Polistes fuscatus
KristalWatrous...you have convinced me! Thank you!
And thanks to every one else for steering me in the right direction. I had no idea that males did not have stingers. (I guess if they did, they'd be wanting to use them indiscriminately all of the time!)
It looks like a male northern paper wasp (Polistes fuscatus). They have highly variable color patterns, but here are a couple that look really close to yours: http://bugguide.net/node/view/190038/bgi...
http://bugguide.net/node/view/555740/bgi...
On one of the bugguide IDs someone mentioned that the black apical antennal segments are typical for males of this species. Also this being a male would explain the absence of a stinger - only females have them.
Spotted on Aug 19, 2011
Submitted on Oct 10, 2011
+1
