Paper Wasp

Description:

There are different species of Paper Wasps. Those Polistes wasps which build the inverted mushroom-shaped nest near buildings are either Polistes humilis, P. tepidus, P. variabilis or P. townsvillensis. They are dark brown in colour with yellow bends on dark brown abdomen. The thorax is black in colour with yellow 'V' markings. Their faces are yellow with large compound eyes. Paper Wasps build wide cone shape nest hanging with single stalk. They are social wasps living in colonies in a nest built of "paper". Those nest building materials are chewed plant materials such as decayed timber, mixed with their saliva. They will attack and sting if their nest are disturbed.

Habitat:

Paper Wasps have a yearly cycle of their life. In spring season a Paper Wasp female starts building its nest. She will be the queen if her colony can be established. Paper Wasps build nest under sheltered area, such as under palm leaf, large tree trunk and building covers. The second picture shows the same nest, which becomes a established colony in mid-summer. Paperwasps, like all ants and some bees, are social insects, each nest is a colony of females. Only one female, the queen, lays all the eggs. All the other females are workers, they help their mother queen for feeding their sisters. They also help in building and expanding the nest. They can sting painfully and will defends their nest aggressively.

Notes:

Unlike bees or ants which the queen look very different. The Paper Wasp queen just look similar to all her workers. The queen lays an egg in the bottom of each cell. When the wasp larvae hatch, their adult sisters feed them with chewed caterpillars and some other insects. When the larvae fully grows and becomes a pupa, the cell is closed. Some time later a new adult wasps emerge and it become a new worker of the colony. The wasp colony gradually expands and establishes.