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Northern paper wasp

Polistes fuscatus

Photo by LisaPowers
Published on Project Noah
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Species ID Suggestions

Paper Wasp

Polistinae

Reference Link
dungeonmasterShu
1

European hornet

Vespa crabro

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KarenL
1

Northern paper wasp

Polistes fuscatus

Reference Link
KristalWatrous
1

Comments (5)
LisaPowers
KristalWatrous...you have convinced me! Thank you! And thanks to every one else for steering me in the right direction. I had no idea that males did not have stingers. (I guess if they did, they'd be wanting to use them indiscriminately all of the time!)
KristalWatrous
It looks like a male northern paper wasp (Polistes fuscatus). They have highly variable color patterns, but here are a couple that look really close to yours: http://bugguide.net/node/view/190038/bgimage http://bugguide.net/node/view/555740/bgimage On one of the bugguide IDs someone mentioned that the black apical antennal segments are typical for males of this species. Also this being a male would explain the absence of a stinger - only females have them.
LisaPowers
It did not appear to have any stinger.

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PublishedOctober 10, 2011

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