Coarse-backed red paper wasp
Polistes rubiginosus
The coarse-backed red paper wasp is a large wasp that is almost all rusty red with a few dark marks. It lives in a family and builds a paper nest in sheltered spots. It looks so much like another red wasp that people mixed them up for a long time.
Lives in
The eastern United States, from Pennsylvania to Georgia and west to Texas
What does it eat?
Paper wasps hunt caterpillars and other small insects to feed their young.
How fast is it?
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Coarse-backed red paper wasp about 22 km/h (14 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
A car driving in town about 50 km/h (31 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It builds its nest in hollow trees, under wooden decks and inside sheds.
2
Its front wings are about 2 centimetres long.
3
For many years it was known by a different scientific name, Polistes perplexus.
4
Its cheeks are covered in silvery hairs.
you asked
Most asked questions about Coarse-backed red paper wasp
?Where does the red paper wasp build its nest?
In sheltered places like hollow trees, under decks and inside sheds.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Polistes rubiginosus
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Vespidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Vespidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Polistes rubiginosus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by xpda. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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