Mexican paper wasp
The Mexican paper wasp is a slim orange-yellow wasp from America. It builds a small nest of paper cells that hangs from a leaf on a thin stem. It especially loves to build in palm trees.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
A nest can be started by just one female or by a team of up to twenty.
A female can switch between building alone and building with a team during her life.
It often builds on the east side of palm leaves, where the morning sun warms the nest early.
Its nests are made of paper that the wasps make by chewing plant fibres.
A nest can last about 8 months, but many fail much sooner.
Most asked questions about Mexican paper wasp
?Where does the Mexican paper wasp build its nest?
Often on palm leaves, but also on oak trees, Spanish moss and buildings.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Mischocyttarus mexicanus
- Named by
- de Saussure, 1854
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Vespidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Vespidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Mischocyttarus mexicanus (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 Judy Gallagher. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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