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Photo#112554
Paper wasps - Polistes fuscatus - male - female

Paper wasps - Polistes fuscatus - Male Female
Sunnyhill, Marion County, Florida, USA
May 24, 2007

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Paper wasps - Polistes fuscatus - male - female Paper wasps - Polistes fuscatus - male - female Paper wasps - Polistes fuscatus - male - female Paper wasps - Polistes fuscatus - male - female Paper wasps - Polistes fuscatus - male

Polistes fuscatus, male+female at small nest (FL)
It is a pleasure to identify these excellent images. This is the largely ferruginous Floridian form of P. fuscatus. The specimens have too much yellow for metricus; the female hind femur does not have a black basal ring as dorsalis, and the apical flagellomeres are dark (except the very tip of the last flagellomere), which furthermore excludes all other relatives (bellicosus, metricus and dorsalis). The female of P. bellicosus also has more yellow on the clypeus. The occurence of three males on such a small nest is remarkable. There is extensive literature on the sociobiology of P. fuscatus, with which I am not familiar enough.

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