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Photo#9256
Eastern Yellowjacket, queen - Vespula maculifrons - female

Eastern Yellowjacket, queen - Vespula maculifrons - Female
Ailsa Craig, Ontario, Canada
June 16, 2004
Length about 12 mm; found inside kitchen window. There's several images of Vespula pensylvanica in the Guide that have the arrowhead shape but lack separate round spots on the abdomen. No IDed photos of German Yellowjackets yet - can someone confirm or correct this one?
(update: title changed from "German Yellowjacket?" based on Richard's ID as Vespula maculifrons)

guide page...
I've made a guide page and moved your image there:)

Eastern Yellowjacket (Vespula maculifrons) queen
The very broad arrowhead shape, almost reaching black lateral spots on the first abdominal tergite, is typical of Vespula maculifrons.
The specimen of V. pensylvanica (I found only one, that one misidentified as a Sandhill Hornet and corrected by Bug Eric) in this guide lacks separate round spots because it's a worker, not a queen: most V. pensylvanica queens do have eight free black spots on the back of the abdomen, just like this one. However, their overall pattern is different, rather like that of a V. germanica queen.
By the way, the picture #7471 of this guide shows a V. maculifrons worker, lacking free black spots, too: they are merged in the black basal bands.
This queen, coming from the northern part of the species' range, has only two very small, easily overlooked, yellow spots on the rear side of the mesoscutum: to compare with the one found in North Carolina by Lynette Schmid.

 
Thanks, Richard
I now think that the photo on this page of a "German Yellowjacket" is actually an Eastern Yellowjacket, yes? And is this one from Montreal a German Yellowjacket?

 
Actually a German yellowjacket worker
This photograph from the Insectarium of Montreal shows a dead German yellowjacket worker. On that same website, you should find two (small) photographs of living queens of the same species, in order to compare with your own queen of V. maculifrons.

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