Identification
For an online key to the 13 genera occurring in the northeast see the
Identification Atlas of the Vespidae of the northeastern Nearctic region.
(1)
All of this subfamily have folded wings, like the rest of the Vespidae. A difficult group even to identify as to genus. Usually patterned boldly in black and yellow or white. A few genera can be identified by their distinctive abdomens, especially the juncture of abdomen and thorax, the first and second abdominal segments:
First two abdominal segments forming a tapered petiole linking abdomen and thorax:
Eumenes (true Potter Wasps),
Zethus.
Abdomen blunt where it meets thorax, with no obvious petiole between the two. Large, common wasps, with bold pattern:
Monobia (Mason Wasps, only two species).
Other genera are not easy to recognize. They usually have abdominal segments one and two about the same width, as best I can tell:
Ancistrocerus,
Euodynerus, Leptochilus, Parancistrocerus, Pachyodynerus, etc.
At any rate, Eric Eaton tells us there is much taxonomic confusion in the group.
Food
Eumenines prey mainly upon moth larvae, although some take larvae of leaf-feeding beetles.
Adults take nectar.
Life Cycle
Typically construct nests of mud (thus "mason" or "potter wasps"), but sometimes nest in burrows or abandoned nests of other wasps. Zethus nests in cavities in wood. Most provision with caterpillars.
Remarks
There are a number of cleptoparasites and parasites of eumenine wasps, with chrysidid wasps, mutillid wasps, and sarcophagid flies being most frequently reared from nests.
Print References
Arnett pp. 588-589, discusses group.
(2)
Lutz, pp. 415-416 (3rd ed.), gives a partial key, very useful!
(3)
