Chris Kratzer also thought this photo is metricus like I did, although wasn't certain. In any case, Jonathan's claim of how you would ID this record is somewhat different from what you now have said, so it was correct to ask you or additional identifiers to review. Is the head color character truly diagnostic of fuscatus on it's own? Also, for the similar fuscatus photos Jonathan shared, first I might wonder if any of those could be metricus, maybe not, but either way those photos look different than the current one.

As I also originally said, the shape of the red T1 and T2 markings are most typical of metricus, vs. he said that isn't true. Is it true that many fuscatus have red markings shaped like this? Additional comments or asking additional identifiers would be helpful. It would be interesting to know what iNaturalist pedro3111 or others would ID this as. In any case, would it be best to move this record from fuscatus to "fuscatus or metricus"?

For the Vespid Atlas, it was my goal to make identification of vespids as easy as possible, i.e. wherever possible I tried to identify unique colour patterns that would characterize a species. This proved to be a very difficult task in Fuscopolistes because fuscatus is so variable that it shares patterns with most other species it occurs together with. The best I could do was keying out fuscatus females in several places taking into consideration various colour morphs. I was unable to come up with a conclusive diagnosis of fuscatus vs. metricus based on colour patterns. This was backed up by DNA sequencing which I did extensively (see my Polistes paper in Zootaxa). In some cases, the boundaries of variation could only be determined by sequencing (e.g., between fuscatus and the northern form of bellicosus, which previously was confused with the former).

The pattern of T 1 and 2 shown here also occurs in fuscatus. I have a few hundred specimens from MD and surrounding states here at the museum. Every wasp has a different pattern and some are very similar to this one. I am not sure in which way the head pattern of this wasp serves to rule out metricus. What I stated back then is that the clypeus of metricus is never marked with black, but sometimes it is in fuscatus with metricus-like pattern. I still consider this to be true today.

In conclusion, I find the evidence based on coloration ambiguous. The structural character (evenly rounded S2) weighs much more significantly in my opinion. Without hearing any other opinions, I would have identified this wasp as fuscatus. But I have no problem with backing it up to 'fuscatus or metricus'. Since different people independently have come to different conclusions this is probably the best course of action.

The head/face character I referred to was as commented to me on this page, "P. metricus *never* has the black markings of the face extending broadly to the antennal bases." I'm wondering if this is always the case.

On the topic of coloration, although not pertaining to this record, I've also wondered if metricus can have red markings past T2 vs. the key says never past T2.

Metricus never has red markings beyond T2, except in the Florida Keys. Most females there have red on T3 and occasionally even T4. To my knowledge, fuscatus does not occur in the Keys but it is found in the Everglades.

It would be best to ask him what species he thinks this is and to share the answer here, given that we disagree.

The abdomen convexity is sufficient to indicate metricus. Another indication is the shape of the red markings on the first two segments, and there are additional characters indicating metricus in these photos.

I'm not sure this view helps narrow it down much, but it's the best I captured of this specimen.

I'm guessing Polistes metricus or Polistes fuscatus?

You're welcome. It might be hard to ID to species without a dorsal view. The fact that Dr. Ascher left it at the genus level is consistent with that. You might eventually get a species ID but that's most likely beyond me.

The view is not ideal, but is the best one I captured.