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Common Black Ground Beetle
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Leaf-Footed Pine Seed Bug
The Common Black Ground Beetle
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Common Black Ground Beetle
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Table of Contents
Common Name: Wasp
Scientific Name:Vespula vulgaris
- Yellow Jackets, which are a type of wasp have six legs, two antennas, four wings,
and range between sizes of 1/2 an inch to 3/4 of an inch. The "queen" is uaually larger in size. Located at
the front of the yellow jacket are the two antennas, usually always back. Some occurances appear to have a
red-orange like color. The wings are clear with veins running through them. They are also
meaning they transmit light and are reflectant of light. When the wasp is not moving the wings are stationed along the side of the abdomen. At the very rear end of the wasp, the stinger is located. The stinger is lance-like and sting repeatedly. The head is small which leads to a narrow waist and the thorax and abdomen maked with alternating stripes of black and yellow. Yellow jackets do not have any hair on their abdomen or thorax,
unlike bees. Through out a yellow jacket's life it goes through four stages. Each one has a different physical appearance.
- The eggs are milky white and typically "sausage-shaped." They are about 1 to 2 mm in length.
- The legless larva is creamy white and ranges from slightly larger than the egg at hatching to near adult size at maturity. The first three instars are fixed to the cell wall. The last two instars are able to move about within the cell.
- The pupa resembles a mummified adult. It is the same length as the adult.
- Yellow jackets are commonly mistaken for bees or hornets. They closely resemble hornets, but can be told apart by the much bigger size of their head. Other distinguishing physical
characteristics of yellow jackets include their noticeable antenna, dark eyes and wings that are folded onto
themselves when the wasp is not flying. Yellow jackets lack the hairy legs like other bees that carry honey.
All species of wasps include a yellow or white face. Their m
outhparts are usually well-developed with strong
for capturing and chewing insects, with a proboscis for sucking nectar, fruit, and other juices. The yellow jackets' closest relative is the hornet. They both closely resemble each other but wasps have a much
bigger head, seenespecially in the large distance from the eyes to the back of the head. Yellow Jacket wasps are unlike other species like them because of their aggressive behavior. They
will attack anyone or anything that invades their space. They have smooth stingers, so they can sting over and over again. Their stings also carry venom that makes the stings hurt, itch or swell for about 24 hours. Humans are at the risk of
from the sting.
Wasps live in the nests that their colony has built with the Queen as the head of the colony. It is destoryed when the queen leaves to start another colony and the remaining wasps die. They prefer to nest near humans live, but the location needs to be shealterd and have access to the outdoors. They build their nests in a variety of places, often choosing sunny spots like, underground, along banks, attached to walls, in trees and shrubs, under the floor and eaves of houses. Wasps do not go in and out of their nest during times of high light intenisty. During dawn or duck the low light helps
highlight their flight path.
Many social wasps produce paper pulp nests on trees, in attics, holes in the ground or other such sheltered areas. By contrast solitary wasps are generally parasitic or predatory and only the latter build nests at all.
Yellow jacket nests usually last for only one season, dying off in winter. The nest is started by a single queen, called the "foundress". Typically, a nest can reach the size of a basketball by
the end of a season. Yellow jackets are s
ocial wasps who use
to construct their nests. In order to construct their nest the wasps go through a process. A wasp collects wood fiber by using its mandibles to scrape it from worn and weathered wooden fences, buildings, telephone poles, and other sources. Sometimes it collects fiber from man-made paper products such as paper bags or cardboard boxes. The insect then chews the wood and mixes it with saliva. This makes the wood fiber extremely soft and moist. After a period of chewing, the wasp adds the paste to the nest structure and spreads it out with her mandib