Cliff-nesting

Guides

• Polistes annularis

  Ringed Paper Wasp, Jack Spaniard Wasp, Red Paper Wasp

  Polistes annularis is a primitively eusocial paper wasp native to the eastern United States, distinguished by its large size and distinctive red-and-black coloration with a prominent yellow ring on the abdomen. The species exhibits complex social behavior including cooperative nest founding by multiple foundresses, dominance hierarchies, and unique overwintering strategies involving honey storage. Nests are constructed in aggregations under overhangs near water bodies, with colonies typically containing 500 or more cells. Unlike many temperate Polistes species, P. annularis shows relatively robust cold tolerance and has been extensively studied as a model organism for social insect behavior and kin recognition.

  social-wasppaper-waspprimitively-eusocialnest-aggregationoverwinteringhoney-storageMüllerian-mimicryfoundress-associationdominance-hierarchykin-recognitioncold-tolerancemodel-organismcaterpillar-predatorriparian-habitatannual-colony-cyclequeen-successioncuticular-hydrocarbonssubgenus-AphanilopterusPolistinaeVespidaeHymenopteraeastern-United-Statesred-and-black-colorationringed-abdomenorange-antennaecliff-nestinghibernaculausurpationaltruismreproductive-competitionjuvenile-hormoneovarian-developmentmicrosatellite-markersmaternity-assignmentbehavioral-ecologysocial-insectnest-architecturepetiole-constructionfoundress-evictionworker-emergencesexual-dimorphismstructural-sex-determinationtrehalosecold-survivalant-predationparasitoidElasmus-polistisChalcoela-iphitalisbiological-controlpollinatorsting-allergenantigen-5Linnaeus-1763Fabricius-1804etymology-Greek-polistesLatin-annularis-ringed