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Polistes fuscatus or metricus
The wasp is a dark ferruginous (rusty) color with black markings on its thorax and a mostly black abdomen. The tibia is black, and the tarsi are yellow. The three ocelli are contained within a black spot, separate from the antennae. Females bear six abdominal segments, and males bear seven. The insect makes its paper vespiary outdoors just below the roof of a house or in foliage or trees. P. metricus feeds mainly on caterpillars.
A North American paper wasp ranging throughout the southern Midwest, the South, and as far northeast as New York and southwest Ontario.
Spotted on Apr 8, 2012
Submitted on Apr 21, 2012
7 Comments
Impressive picture!
Thanks for the ID suggestions; this was the ID finally suggested by BugGuide.
I think the Carolina Red Wasp, Polistes carolinus, is more common in the Southeast.
Thanks for the suggestions. Not being knowledgeable about insects, I will look at both and try to figure it out.
This is one of the Paper Wasps. It is, I think, either: Polistes perplexus or Polistes carolinus. The differences are very minor as you can read and see here:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/50540
Mahogany wasp. Aggressive. Great pic
Wow, nice one :)