Other Common Names
Potter Wasps, E. fraterna (-us) is called "The Potter Wasp"
Explanation of Names
Probably comes from mythology. Menes was a king of Egypt, the king who united upper and lower Egypt in Greek accounts. Prefix eu- is Greek for good, true, thorough. An allusion to construction habits of the wasps, since the Egyptians were such builders? (Based on Internet searches.)
See comments for a likely better origin!
Numbers
Nearctica.com lists 8 spp. for North America
Arnett, p. 589, lists 18 spp.
(1)Identification
For an online key to the five species occurring in the northeast see the
Identification Atlas of the Vespidae of the northeastern Nearctic region.
(2)
Abdomen (petiolate) fairly distinctive for this and related (?) genera.
Range
Includes much of North America. Arnett, p. 589, says E. fraternus is common in east, E. bollii in west.
(1)Season
June-October (E. fraternus)
Food
Take nectar and/or pollen--seen on flowers.
Life Cycle
Females make a pot of clay as a nest, provision with moth and beetle larvae. Wasp places eggs on wall of cell, then provisions.
Print References
Swan and Papp, p. 545, fig. 1188--E. fraterna, adult and nest
(3)
Lutz, E. fraterna, plate 98 in 3rd edition
(4)
MacLachlan, William B. 1980. A Key to and Notes on the Eumenes of America North of Mexico (Hymenoptera: Eumenidae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 53(3): 617-621.
