Polistes gallicus

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BO., 31.03.2006 22:47

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31.03.2006 22:47, BO.

Polistes gallicus, or the French Wasp, is a member of the Fold-winged wasp family. These wasps are distinguished by the feature of folding their wings parallel to each other along the abdomen. The wasps themselves feed on nectar and pollen, and do not disdain the juice of mature fruits. They feed their larvae on paralyzed or killed insects. Nests are built from old wood and similar materials. The wasps chew them into a sticky, fibrous mass, which they then shape into the desired shape. When it dries, this mass turns into a hard gray paper. These wasps are social-they live in colonies. With the approach of winter, males, workers and old queens fly apart and die, only young already fertilized queens survive until spring. They are distributed in the south of the European part of Russia, in the Caucasus and in Central Asia.
Author: VO

26.10.2006 15:10, Гость

In the photo of Polistes gallicus (L.) (spots on the mandibles, features of the color of the antennae and chest are visible in workers - previously this species was called P. foederatus (Day, 1979). Carpenter (1996) cites the distribution of this species... BUT! The northern limit of its distribution is not clear, for example, in Russia.
Interesting features: female founders of this species build nests on plants in the spring alone (in other polist species, nests are found both on plants and in shelters; the family can be founded by different numbers of females: one female (haplometrosis), several (pleometrosis). The ratio of families in a population according to the method of foundation is an important indicator of the state of the population.)
And more... female founders of P. gallicus die in the summer, sometimes long before the family breaks up.