Moved from Dolichovespula.

Given the date, difficult to say whether this female was an "old timer" from 2006 or a young freshly emerged from a D. arenaria colony. On the one hand, wings are hardly - if any - wheathered, which suggests a young one. But on the other hand, gaster seems not "fat" enough for an indidual who will have to hibernate until following spring.
These pics are especially interesting, because they show that at least some members of the Western populations are clearly more similar to palaearctic D. adulterina adulterina than Eastern specimens. Indeed, had this female owned a greenish sulphur yellow rather than creamy white pattern, I'd thought she came from "my" Jura mountains.