Ringed paper wasp
The ringed paper wasp is a big wasp with a rusty red head and middle and a black back end with one bright yellow ring. It builds paper nests, often close to water. Many families build their nests side by side, like a little wasp village.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It hangs its nests under overhangs near lakes and rivers, where they stay in the shade.
Before the winter it stores honey, which is unusual for a paper wasp.
It copes with cold winters better than many other wasps.
Its worst enemies are ants, but birds sometimes eat it too.
Males and females both have red faces, so you have to count the parts of their feelers to tell them apart.
Most asked questions about Ringed paper wasp
?Where does the ringed paper wasp build its nest?
On branches, in sheltered parts of buildings and under overhangs near water.
?What does the ringed paper wasp eat?
Nectar and other insects.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Polistes annularis
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1763
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Vespidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Vespidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Jack Spaniard wasp
Where the facts come from
- Polistes annularis (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 round sticker of this bug is cut from the same 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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