Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Yellow Jacket, attacks a bee

Vespula germanica

Description:

Vespula germanica and (probably) Apis mellifera
 
Vespula germanica: The German wasp, or European wasp, Vespula germanica, is a wasp found in much of the Northern Hemisphere, native to Europe, northern Africa, and temperate Asia. It has been introduced and is well-established in many other places, including North America, South America (Argentina and Chile), Australia and New Zealand. German wasps are part of the family Vespidae and are sometimes mistakenly referred to as paper wasps because they build grey paper nests, although strictly speaking, paper wasps are part of the subfamily Polistinae. In North America, they are also known as yellowjackets.
 
La avispa come carne o avispa germánica (Vespula germanica), también conocida a veces como chaqueta amarilla es una especie de himenóptero apócrito de la familia Vespidae. El nombre común, chaqueta amarilla, se aplica también a otras avispas de los géneros Vespula y Dolichovespula de aspecto similar. Es una especie de origen Mediterráneo abarcando Europa, Norte de África, y zonas templadas de Asia, fue introducida en Norte América (este de Estados Unidos), Sudamérica (Chile y Argentina), sur de Australia y Nueva Zelanda. Generalmente donde fue introducida es considerada plaga.

Notes:

Cortando el pasto vemos como una chaqueta amarilla agarra en pleno vuelo a una abeja, la bota al suelo y la empieza a "Faenar". Le corta las alas, las patas y finalmente la cabeza, para agarrarla del abdomen con sus 4 patas delanteras y salir volando.
 
En las fotos se puede ver una de las alas y una que otra pata. Como siempre sólo tenía la cámara del teléfono.
 
While mowing the lawn we see a Yellow jacket "assaulting" a bee in mid air, dropping it to the ground where the struggle begins. But the yellow jacket deftly "prepares" the pray by cutting it's wings, then, legs, and finally the head. It then manoeuvres the bee so it can hold it with it's 4 forelegs and takes off flying... with a bug almost it's same size.
 
In the pictures you can see a wing and a couple of legs. As usual crappy phone camera is all I had.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

1 Comment

Arun
Arun 12 years ago

Nice capture ...

Lo Barnechea, XIII Región Metropolitana de Santiago, Chile

Spotted on Jan 21, 2012
Submitted on Jan 24, 2012

Related Spottings

German wasp Wasp Western Yellowjacket Western yellow jacket

Nearby Spottings

Chinita Arlequín, Harlequin ladybird Avispa, Wasp Pie Azul Chinita chilena

Reference

Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team