Yellowjacket
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Hymenoptera Family: Vespidae Subfamily: Vespinae Genus: Vespula or Dolichovespula

Yellowjacket or yellow-jacket is the common name in North America for wasps of the genera Vespula and Dolichovespula. Members of these genera are known simply as wasps in other English-speaking countries. Most of these are black-and-yellow; some are black-and-white (such as the bald-faced hornet, Dolichovespula maculata), while others may have red markings. They can be identified by their distinctive coloring, small size (similar to or slightly smaller or larger than a honey bee), entirely black antennae, and characteristic, rapid, side to side flight pattern prior to landing. They are often mistakenly called "bees" in the United States[1]. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 533 pixel Image in higher resolution (1600 × 1066 pixel, file size: 160 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) European Wasp on a white background. ... Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. ... For other uses, see Animal (disambiguation). ... Subphyla and Classes Subphylum Trilobitomorpha Trilobita - trilobites (extinct) Subphylum Chelicerata Arachnida - spiders,scorpions, etc. ... Insects (Class Insecta) are a major group of arthropods and the most diverse group of animals on the Earth, with over a million described species—more than all other animal groups combined. ... Suborders Apocrita Symphyta Hymenoptera is one of the larger orders of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. ... Genera The vespids are a family of wasps, including all social wasps and some solitary wasps. ... Vespinae is a subfamily in the family Vespidae, order Hymenoptera. ... Yellowjackets are black-and-yellow wasps of the genus Vespula or Dolichovespula. ... For the comic book characters, see Yellowjacket (comics). ... In science, a common name is any name by which a species or other concept is known that is not the official scientific name. ... North America North America is a continent[1] in the Earths northern hemisphere and (chiefly) western hemisphere. ... Suborder Apocrita See text for explanation. ... For other uses of the word, please see Genus (disambiguation). ... Yellowjackets are black-and-yellow wasps of the genus Vespula or Dolichovespula. ... For the comic book characters, see Yellowjacket (comics). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Binomial name Dolichovespula maculata Linnaeus The Dolichovespula maculata (common names White-faced hornet or Bald-faced yellowjacket) is not a true hornet at all. ... The honeybee is a colonial insect that is often maintained, fed, and transported by farmers. ... Insects display a wide variety of antennal shapes. ...

Identification

A typical yellowjacket worker is about 12 mm (0.5 inches) long, short and blocky, with alternating black and yellow bands on the abdomen while the queen is larger, about 19 mm (0.75 inches) long. (The different black and yellow patterns on the abdomen help separate various species.) Workers are sometimes confused with honey bees, especially when flying in and out of their nests. Yellowjackets, in contrast to honey bees, are not covered with tan-brown dense hair on their bodies and lack the flattened hairy hind legs used to carry pollen. Yellowjackets have a lance-like stinger without barbs and can sting repeatedly whereas honey bees have a barbed stinger and are capable of stinging mammals only once. Some have yellow on the face. Mouthparts are well-developed for capturing and chewing insects with a tongue for sucking nectar, fruit and other juices. Nests are built in trees, shrubs or in protected places such as inside human-made structures (attics, hollow walls or flooring, in sheds, under porches and eaves of houses), or in soil cavities, mouse burrows, etc. Nests are made from wood fiber chewed into a paper-like pulp.

Life Cycle and Habits

Yellowjackets are social wasps living in colonies containing workers, queens and males. Colonies are annual with only inseminated queens overwintering. Fertilized queens occur in protected places as hollow logs, in stumps, under bark, in leaf litter, in soil cavities and human-made structures. Queens emerge during the warm days of late April or early May, select a nest site and build a small paper nest in which eggs are laid. After eggs hatch from the 30 to 50 brood cells, the queen feeds the young larvae for about 18 to 20 days. Larvae pupate, emerging later as small, infertile females called workers. By mid-June, the first adult workers emerge and assume the tasks of nest expansion, foraging for food, care of the queen and larvae, and colony defense.

From this time until her death in the autumn, the queen remains inside the nest laying eggs. The colony then expands rapidly reaching a maximum size of 4,000 and 5,000 workers and a nest of 10,000 and 15,000 cells in August and early September. At peak size, reproductive cells are built with new males and queens produced. Adult reproductives remain in the nest fed by the workers. New queens build up fat reserves to overwinter. Adult reproductives leave the parent colony to mate. After mating, males quickly die while fertilized queens seek protected places to overwinter. Parent colony workers dwindle, usually leaving the nest and die, as does the foundress queen. Abandoned nests rapidly decompose and disintegrate during the winter. Nests inside structures will persist as long as they are dry. Nests are not used again.

In the spring, the cycle is repeated. (Weather in the spring is the most important factor in colony establishment.) Although adults feed primarily on items rich in sugars and carbohydrates (fruits, flower nectar and tree sap), the larvae feed on proteins (insects, meats, fish, etc.). Adult workers chew and condition the meat fed to the larvae. Larvae in return secrete a sugar material relished by the adults, an exchange of material known as trophallaxis. In late summer, foraging workers (nuisance scavengers) change their food preference from meats to ripe, decaying fruits or scavenge human garbage, sodas, picnics, etc., since larvae in the nest fail to meet requirements as a source of sugar. Trophallaxis is the regurgitation of food by one animal for another. ...

Although they lack the pollen-carrying structures of bees, yellowjackets can be minor pollinators when visiting flowers.

Notable species

• European yellowjackets (the German wasp, Vespula germanica and the common wasp, Vespula vulgaris) were originally native to Europe, but are now established in North America, southern Africa, New Zealand, and eastern Australia.

• The Eastern Yellowjacket, Vespula maculifrons, and Western Yellowjacket, Vespula pensylvanica, are native to North america.

• Bald-faced hornet, Dolichovespula maculata, belong among the yellowjackets rather than the true hornets, but are not usually called "yellowjackets" because of their ivory-on-black coloration.

• Tree Wasp, Dolichovespula sylvestris

Binomial name Vespula germanica (Fabricius, 1793) The German Wasp, Vespula germanica is a wasp found in much of the Northern Hemisphere, and introduced to Australia and New Zealand. ... Binomial name Vespula vulgaris (Linnaeus, 1758) The common wasp, Vespula vulgaris is a wasp found in much of the Northern Hemisphere, and introduced to Australia and New Zealand. ... World map showing the location of Europe. ... North America North America is a continent[1] in the Earths northern hemisphere and (chiefly) western hemisphere. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. ... Binomial name Dolichovespula maculata Linnaeus The Dolichovespula maculata (common names White-faced hornet or Bald-faced yellowjacket) is not a true hornet at all. ... This article refers collectively to all true hornets. ...

Nest

Two-Year Yellowjacket Nest

• Dolichovespula species (for example the aerial yellowjacket Dolichovespula arenaria and the bald-faced hornet, Dolichovespula maculata) tend to create exposed aerial nests (a feature shared with true hornets, which has led to some confusion as to the use of the name "hornet").
• Vespula species, in contrast, build concealed nests, usually underground.

Yellowjacket nests usually last for only one season, dying off in winter. The nest is started by a single queen, called the foundress. The nest typically can reach the size of a basketball by the end of the season. In parts of Australia , New Zealand, the Pacific Islands and southwestern coastal areas of the United States, the winters are mild enough to allow nest overwintering. Nests that survive multiple seasons become massive and often possess multiple egg-laying queens^[1]. [2] Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 578 pixelsFull resolution (1037 × 749 pixel, file size: 303 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) This is a GIANT perennial southern yellowjacket (Vespula squamosa) nest which is a part of my personal collection. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 578 pixelsFull resolution (1037 × 749 pixel, file size: 303 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) This is a GIANT perennial southern yellowjacket (Vespula squamosa) nest which is a part of my personal collection. ... Binomial name Dolichovespula maculata Linnaeus The Dolichovespula maculata (common names White-faced hornet or Bald-faced yellowjacket) is not a true hornet at all. ... This article refers collectively to all true hornets. ... The Pacific Ocean contains an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 islands; the exact number has not been precisely determined. ...

US significance

In 1975, the German yellowjacket first appeared in Ohio and has now become the dominant species over the Eastern yellowjacket. It is bold, aggressive and, if provoked, can sting repeatedly and painfully. The German yellowjacket builds its nests in cavities (not necessarily underground) with the peak worker population in temperate areas between 1,000 and 3,000 individuals between May to August, each colony producing several thousand new reproductives after this point, through November. The Eastern yellowjacket builds its nests underground, also with the peak worker population between 1,000 and 3,000 individuals similar to the German yellowjacket. Nests are built entirely of wood fiber (usually weathered or dead) and are completely enclosed (football or soccer-ball shaped) except for a small opening (entrance) at the bottom. The color of the paper is highly dependent on the source of the wood fibers used. The nests contain multiple, horizontal tiers of combs (10 or more) within. Larvae hang down in combs. Binomial name (Fabricius, 1793) The three dots on the German wasps face The German wasp, or European wasp, Vespula germanica, is a wasp found in much of the Northern Hemisphere, native to Europe, nothern Africa, and temperate Asia. ...

In the Southeastern US where southern yellowjacket (Vespula squamosa) nests may persist through the winter, colony sizes of this species may reach 100,000 adult wasps.

The yellowjacket's most visible place in American culture is as the mascot of the University of Rochester and Georgia Institute of Technology. The University of Rochester (UR) is a private, coeducational and nonsectarian research university located in Rochester, New York. ... The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly known as Georgia Tech, is a public, coeducational research university, part of the University System of Georgia, and located in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, with satellite campuses in Savannah, Georgia, Metz, France and Singapore. ...

It's also the battle name of a Marvel Comics super-hero named Henry Pym, who, in his first identity as Ant-man, co-founded the Avengers. Marvel Comics is an American comic book line published by Marvel Publishing, Inc. ... Dr. Henry Hank Jonathan Pym is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics Universe, created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby. ...

In cartoons and some artwork, bees are usually drawn as yellowjackets.

Gallery

Image of a yellowjacket as seen from several angles. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (3103x2258, 571 KB) Author: Turtlezzz File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Yellowjacket ...	A black and white yellowjacket (Vespula flaviceps) Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (800x800, 69 KB) クロスズメバチ Vespula flaviceps クロスズメバチは、スズメバチ科・スズメバチ亜科クロスズメバチ属に属するハチ Source http://opencage. ...
	Vespula species drinking syrup Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1154 × 1538 pixel, file size: 911 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 630 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1238 × 1178 pixel, file size: 726 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 799 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (1642 × 1232 pixel, file size: 842 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1115x796, 265 KB) Summary Wasp (Dolichovespula sylvestris) drinking syrup. ... Yellowjackets are black-and-yellow wasps of the genus Vespula or Dolichovespula. ... In cooking, a syrup (from Arabic شراب sharab, beverage, via Latin siropus) is a thick, viscous liquid, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars, but showing little tendency to deposit crystals. ...

See also

• German wasp, Vespula germanica
• Common wasp, Vespula vulgaris
• biocontrol
• Volucella pellucens
• Schmidt Sting Pain Index
• Harvard University fact sheet on yellowjackets

Binomial name Vespula germanica (Fabricius, 1793) The German Wasp, Vespula germanica is a wasp found in much of the Northern Hemisphere, and introduced to Australia and New Zealand. ... Binomial name Vespula vulgaris (Linnaeus, 1758) The common wasp, Vespula vulgaris is a wasp found in much of the Northern Hemisphere, and introduced to Australia and New Zealand. ... Biological control of pests and diseases Overview A key belief of the organic gardener is that diversity furthers health. ... Binomial name Volucella pellucens (Linnaeus, 1758) Volucella pellucens is a hover-fly. ... Schmidt Sting Pain Index or The Justin O. Schmidt Pain Index was created by Justin O. Schmidt, an entomologist. ...

References

1. ^ http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060717/NEWS/607180308/1007/9112002