Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Photo#109810
Yellowjacket queen - Vespula alascensis - female

Yellowjacket queen - Vespula alascensis - Female
Burnaby Lake Park, Lower Mainland, British Columbia, Canada
May 13, 2007

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Yellowjacket queen - Vespula alascensis - female Yellowjacket queen - Vespula alascensis - female

Common Yellowjacket (Vespula vulgaris L.)
We have many of them this year here in Western Switzerland too, while the German is comparatively rare.

 
Question; Question answered by other image:-)
The lateral spots are free from the abdominal bands after the second tergite. That would lead me to think this is D. arenaria instead (though the initial yellow band on the abdomen is not broken, as it should be for D. arenaria). All the V. vulgaris I saw in Oregon had the lateral spots fused with the black abdominal bands. BUT, now I note on the other image that there is virtually no ocular-malar space, as there would be if this was D. arenaria.

 
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Thanks