| Vespid wasps |
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Vespula squamosa
Southern yellowjacket
queen |
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The vespids are a family of wasps, including all social wasps and some solitary wasps. Each social wasp colony includes a queen and a number of sterile workers. Colonies usually only last one year, dying at the onset of winter. New queens and males are produced towards the end of the summer, and after mating, the queens overwinter in cracks or other sheltered locations. The nests are constructed out of plant fibres, chewed to form a sort of paper.
The nest pictured below was made by either the baldfaced hornet (American], Dolichovespula maculata (sometimes classified as Vespula maculata), or the aerial yellowjacket, Vespula arenaria. The wasp pictured at right is a yellowjacket queen, Vespula squamosa.
