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

Northern Paper Wasp

Polistes fuscatus

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

30 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.

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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 Ontario.January 603, February 619, March 979, April 1,916, May 3,681, June 1,725, July 1,299, August 1,597, September 1,777, October 1,011, November 632, December 564.
United States53,621
Canada14,976
Ontario10,546
New York5,388
Massachusetts4,332
Ohio3,774
Illinois3,721
Minnesota3,413
Pennsylvania3,250
Wisconsin2,781

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

Study it in a deck

Or build your own from the species near you.

Sources

Remember the name next time.

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

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