Dark-waisted paper wasp
The dark-waisted paper wasp lives in East and South Asia and builds its nest out of paper that it makes itself. It chews up plant fibres and mixes them with its spit. The nest is a set of little rooms, and in each room a baby wasp grows up.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
In spring one queen usually starts a new nest all on her own.
In the very first batch, two babies grow in each room, so the first workers are a bit smaller.
Surprisingly, the queen is not the boss of the nest. The workers often chase and nip her.
The queen seems to send messages by making the nest vibrate.
Sometimes these wasps move into an empty nest that other wasps have left behind.
Most asked questions about Dark-waisted paper wasp
?What does the dark-waisted paper wasp eat?
Mainly caterpillars, which it chews into balls and brings home to its babies.
?How does a paper wasp make paper?
It chews plant fibres and mixes them with its spit, then shapes the soft paste into the rooms of its nest.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Polistes jokahamae
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Vespidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Vespidae
- Lives on
- Asia
Where the facts come from
- Polistes jokahamae (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 Yasunori Koide. 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.
Bug Wiki honey jar For grown-ups: Bug Wiki is free, with no ads and no tracking. A small tip helps keep it online.Leave a tip
European hornet
Northern giant hornet
Bald-faced hornet
Red velvet ant
Eastern cicada killer
Asian hornet
Two-lined spittlebug
Two-spotted cricket
Cottony cushion scale
Clouded yellow
Karner blue
Polka-dot wasp moth