Dolichovespula? - Dolichovespula arenaria

Moved

Moved from Frass.

… Eric R. Eaton, 7 April, 2008 - 4:08pm

Frassed

… Vespula vulgaris, 6 April, 2008 - 8:41am

Unfrassing.

I'm "unfrassing" these because of the comment by Richard that sheds light on vespid behavior; and because this is a xanthic form of this wasp. We can replace some of these images if better ones come down the pike, but in the meantime, let's save these.

… Eric R. Eaton, 7 April, 2008 - 4:07pm

Ok!

i did not realy know what to do with these since they are not the best. feel free to do with them as you please.

… Vespula vulgaris, 7 April, 2008 - 4:35pm

Right guess

This is a Common Aerial Yellowjacket queen (Dolichovespula arenaria).
Nice example of a xanthic individual, with eight "free" spots on urotergites.
Although such feeding behavior, similar to the workers', is rarely witnessed among "fall" queens, it does sometimes occur. For still poorly understood reasons, some young queens in Dolichovespula colonies act as workers, foraging and taking care of the brood, in their mother nest. By doing so, they spend their fat body and are unable to overwinter, doomed to die at the end of the season just like workers. I suspect this was the case of this one individual.

… Richard Vernier, 5 April, 2008 - 9:59pm

Thank you!

this was a while back, when i first got interested in wasps. really i was just watching them and taking pics... then later when i learned about the different species i would ID the photos. such behavior in this one realy confused me! kinda makes you feel bad for tthe queens that do this... is this behavior only documented in dolichovespula colonies?

… Vespula vulgaris, 5 April, 2008 - 10:06pm

To my knowledge, yes

At least this is so far quite unknown in any Vespula species, even in the rufa group. That's not to say it could not exist at all, but in a general way, female castes are less differentiated in Dolichovespula than in Vespula, both morphologically and behaviorally.

… Richard Vernier, 5 April, 2008 - 10:16pm