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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » Aculeata - Bees, Ants, and other Stinging Wasps » Ants, Stinging Wasps, and Hornets (Vespoidea) » Yellowjackets, Paper Wasps, and Hornets; Potter, Mason and Pollen Wasps (Vespidae) » Hornets and Yellowjackets (Vespinae) » Dolichovespula » Common Aerial Yellowjacket (Dolichovespula arenaria)
Photo#63758
Vespula? - Dolichovespula arenaria
Copyright © 2006 Will Chatfield-Taylor

Vespula? - Dolichovespula arenaria
Venice State Beach, San Mateo County, California, USA
July 13, 2006
What genus of wasp is this? And can anyone give a species to it? Thanks a lot, I can't seem to decipher between the three genera of Vespidae in the guide. Could anyone give me some tips for the future? Thanks :-)
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Contributed by Will Chatfield-Taylor on 14 July, 2006 - 12:45am
Last updated 14 July, 2006 - 7:17pm

Dolichovespula
Splendid shot of a D. arenaria (Aerial Yellowjacket or "Sandhills Hornet") worker.
One tip is visible on this picture, to tell apart this one specimen from a Vespula sp.: the pronotum (foreleft part of the thorax, behind left compound eye) has a carina (i.e., a small keel, here underlined by a faint yellow stripe) which makes it look truncated rather than smoothly rounded.
… Richard Vernier, 14 July, 2006 - 10:56am login or register to post comments

 
Thanks a lot!
Thanks a lot for the ID and the tip, wasps are pretty hard for me, so any advice is really welcome, and I can see what you're talking about with the thorax, it makes it look kind of concave rather than convex, right?
… Will Chatfield-Taylor, 14 July, 2006 - 12:31pm login or register to post comments

 
Quite right
One could add that antennal scapus (basal part before the "elbow") is shorter in Dolichovespula than in Vespula, but this is difficult to assess without direct comparison, and moreover applies only to female gender (workers and queens).
… Richard Vernier, 15 July, 2006 - 5:21am login or register to post comments

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