Moved from Polistes aurifer.

I am greatly surprised that you get Polistes with such a colour pattern in Oklahoma! If it was not for the location I would certainly call it aurifer. However, I have only seen aurifer with this pattern from southwest Texas and south Arizona. Furthermore, you have fuscatus in the area (which is actually the same species; aurifer merely being the western subspecies). You photographed it, too (see photo below). Therefore I am calling this apachus, though with an extreme xanthic pattern I have never seen before. Very interesting - thanks for posting! Please continue to share your images of vespids and other wasps!