Nature By NameSign inCreate an account

Insects › Hornets, Paper Wasps, Potter Wasps, and Allies

Southern Paper Wasp

Polistes bellicosus

Learn Southern Paper Wasp freeHow it works
Wildlife study photograph from iNaturalist.
(c) mzplatypus, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)

25 photos

Study shows up to four per card, from different observers, so you learn the species rather than one picture. Heart the good ones and swap any you do not like.

See all photosAdd a photo

Photos you add are credited to you, and you keep the copyright.

Easily confused with

Study checks a spoken answer against these, and tells you which one you named.

Where it is recorded

Records by month in Texas.January 78, February 75, March 85, April 162, May 99, June 48, July 46, August 69, September 107, October 172, November 74, December 71.
United States2,688
Texas890
Louisiana284
Georgia153
Mississippi122
Alabama107
Virginia81
Maryland77
Oklahoma42
South Carolina40

Counts show where people looked, not only where it lives.

Traits

Behavioral

  • EusocialLives in colonies with division of labor and cooperative brood careFrom its classification

Physical

  • ExoskeletonHas a hard external skeletonFrom its classification

Practical

  • StingingCan deliver a painful stingFrom its classification

Classification

KingdomAnimals · Animalia
PhylumArthropods · Arthropoda
ClassInsects · Insecta
OrderAnts, Bees, Wasps, and Sawflies · Hymenoptera
FamilyHornets, Paper Wasps, Potter Wasps, and Allies · Vespidae
GenusUmbrella Paper Wasps · Polistes

Sources

Remember the name next time.

Practise Southern Paper Wasp with real photos from different observers. Say the name out loud, and it comes back just before you would forget it.

Create a free accountHow it works