Tropical Paper Wasp

Description:

Vespidae; Unidentified Polistinae. My wife spotted these wasps building a nest this morning when she was doing her rounds, checking her plants. When she pointed it out to me, I knew immediately that the wasps must belong to the Polistinae Subfamily because the nest is a paper nest. I could also see that the nest was not the umbrella type and that tells me that these wasps are not Polistes stigma which are fairly common in this area. So, just by looking at the nest I know that I will have to call these wasps Unidentified Polistinae. I am tempted to call them Polistes sp. but I will need a little more time to find some reference material to verify that.

Habitat:

These Tropical Paper Wasps were spotted in our front garden on a Pomelo Tree (Citrus maxima), locally known as Suha. Plant identification - http://www.stuartxchange.org/Suha.html