Bald-faced hornet from mid-April to early October, and reproductives were produced from mid-July through the end of November. Onset of male output usually precedes that of queen output in social wasps, however here "D. maculata" is an exception to this trend. Energy investment by workers required to produce reproductives is considerable. Newly emerged males and queens are no more functional than pupae; both depend heavily on solid prey brought in by workers, thus competing with larvae for food resources. As a result, worker quantity must remain high in order to maintain reproductive output. Workers must maintain food stores and defend the nest,
Bald-faced hornet the queen's brood. In a sampling of seven "D. maculata nests", 20.9% of males were produced by workers. The percentage of males who were workers’ sons did not correlate with the time during which nests were collected or colony size. Because worker relatedness is so high in "D. maculata", workers are more related to other workers' sons than to the queen's own sons, and therefore worker policing of egg production does not occur. An explanation for the queen's near monopoly on male production is that worker production is costly and therefore reduces total colony reproduction. The cost toward worker production