Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Photo#18052
Unknown Bee - Vespula squamosa

Unknown Bee - Vespula squamosa
Ponca, Newton County, Arkansas, USA
May 18, 2005
Size: 1 inch at least
It was poking around in the gravel alongside a country road.

Vespula squamosa queen
Yes, this is definitely a queen of Vespula squamosa. No other species of American vespinae has this brownish-orange coloration.

I think this
could be a Yellowjacket. It looks a lot like Photo #11081 that has been identified by others as a Southern Yellowjacket. See what you think.

Anthony W. Thomas

 
That photo says its a queen.
You gave me food for thought and I just looked up about Yellowjacket queens on Google and it sounds like this was one and a biggy at that. Out looking to make a new nest. Im afraid had I known that I would have stomped on her as they can be really awful around the woods I live in.
I have learned something as I didnt know only the large queen survives the winter and makes a new colony in the Spring