Yellowjacket

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Yellowjacket

A European yellowjacket

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Superorder:	Endopterygota
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Vespidae
Subfamily:	Vespinae
Genus:	Vespula or Dolichovespula

For other uses, see Yellowjacket (disambiguation).

Yellowjacket (sometimes spelled yellow-jacket) is a name given, in North American English, to black-and-yellow wasps of the genus Vespula or Dolichovespula (some can be black-and-white, the most notable of these being the bald-faced hornet, Dolichovespula maculata; others may have red markings). They can be identified by their distinctive combination of black-and-yellow color, small size (slightly larger than a bee), entirely black antennae, and characteristic, rapid, side to side flight pattern prior to landing. Yellow Jackets are often mistakenly called "bees."

1 Lifecycle
2 Notable species
3 Nest
4 American Cultural Relevance
5 Trivia
6 Gallery
7 See also

[edit] Lifecycle

Like all other vespines, they live in colonies, and build paper nests. Workers are around 12–20 mm in length, depending on species, and feed on nectar, while collecting other foods (primarily arthropods) for their larvae. They can sting repeatedly, especially when trapped in clothing, because their stingers don't have barbs. They will sometimes sting with little provocation, and so can be major pests, though they sting primarily in order to defend their nest. In autumn, they switch from collecting arthropods and nectar to scavenging other food sources, which can increase their contact with people.

[edit] Notable species

European yellowjackets (the German wasp, Vespula germanica and the common wasp, Vespula vulgaris) were originally native to Europe, but are now established in North America, southern Africa, New Zealand, and eastern Australia.

Bald-faced hornets, Dolichovespula maculata, belong among the yellowjackets rather than the true hornets, but are not usually considered yellowjackets because of their ivory-on-black coloration.

[edit] Nest

Dolichovespula species (for example the aerial yellowjacket Dolichovespula arenaria and the bald-faced hornet, Dolichovespula maculata) tend to create exposed aerial nests (a feature shared with true hornets, which has led to some confusion as to the use of the name "hornet").
Vespula species, in contrast, build concealed nests, usually underground.

Yellowjacket nests usually last for only one season, dying off in winter. The nest is started by a single queen, called the foundress, and typically can reach the size of a basketball by the end of the season^{[citation needed]}. In parts of Australia , New Zealand, the Pacific Islands and southwestern coastal areas of the United States, the winters are mild enough to allow nest overwintering. Nests that survive multiple seasons become massive and often possess multiple egg-laying queens.