Yellowjacket - Vespula sulphurea

About the pictures of Vespula sulphurea queen

Dear Ms. Alice,

My name is Yuichi Izawa. I am an investigator of Yellow jacket in Japan.
I was deeply impressed by your photographs of Vespula sulphurea queen.
That’s because it is difficult to find a hibernating wasp queen, and your photographs are so beautiful !
Now I want to know how Vl. sulphurea queen was hibernating.
That’s why I’m writing this email to you.
I'd appreciate it if you could answer the following questions.

1. The geographical feature of hibernating place
What kind of geographical feature was the hibernating place?
For example, a summit, a ridge, a valley, a level ground, etc.
According to my data in Japan, the preference of geographical feature of hibernating place is different by the kind of the wasps.

2. The posture of hibernating queen
How was the posture of the queen?
Was she facing down, or facing upward?
“Facing down”means that she was lying on the ground.
“Facing upward”means that she was clinging to undersurface of the rock.
In Japan, most kind of wasps are found in the posture of facing upward or of perpendicular position.

3. Size of the rock
How much size was the rock?
I have no idea, because I have never found hibernating queen under the rock yet.
In Japan, most kind of wasps are found in the rotten log or in the soil.

I’m not good at English.
I’m afraid there may be some wrong expression in this email.
Please forgive me if I write something rude.
I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Faithfully yours

… izawa2797, 9 April, 2014 - 11:24pm

Postscript

Postscript
I forgot one. My email address is as follows.
yizawa2@zb3.so-net.ne.jp
If you do not mind, please answer in this address.

… izawa2797, 10 April, 2014 - 9:00pm

Location

She was found very near the top of Cuesta Ridge, the ground would have been slightly sloped, under a fairly dense canopy of sargent cypress (the ground was well shaded). I'm not sure about the exact size of the rock she was under but it would have most likely been in the range of about 22-30cm long and she was on the underside of the rock as opposed to the ground.
Hope this helps,
Alice

… Alice Abela, 10 April, 2014 - 8:02pm

Thank you for your information.

Dear Ms. Alice,

I thank you for having given your precious information.
I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.
I was surprised that the rock is so large.
I’ve learned again that a hibernation habit varies according to species.

I wish you the best of luck with everything.

Yuichi

… izawa2797, 10 April, 2014 - 9:46pm

Moved

Moved from ID Request.

… Vespula Vulgaris, 17 November, 2013 - 10:30pm

Quite the opposite of "commons"

This is Vespula sulphurea. Nice find and nice photograph :)

… Vespula Vulgaris, 17 November, 2013 - 10:29pm

I agree! Here is a link to another image of this wasp

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44150996@N06/10936925195/in/photostream/

… Anthony Daglio, 17 December, 2013 - 10:43pm

Added image

I added/uploaded the image ;o)

… Alice Abela, 19 December, 2013 - 8:47pm

Great shot!

Thanks for uploading it :)

… Anthony Daglio, 5 May, 2014 - 9:48pm

Great shot!

Whoops! Double post

… Anthony Daglio, 5 May, 2014 - 9:48pm