FAMILY VESPIDAE - Paper Wasps and Potter Wasps
This page contains pictures and information about the Paper Wasps and Potter Wasps in family Vespidae that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Notice the strongly emarginated eyes and longitudinally folded wings
- Wasps in this family are from medium to large size. They can be recognized by the inner margins of their compound eyes strongly emarginated. When rest, the fore wings often folded longitudinally.
- All the social wasps are in this wasp family, although some other members are solitary wasps. Some of them build paper nest while others build mud nest.
Subfamily Eumeninae - Potter Wasps
- Potter Wasps build mud nest with jug shape. They are solitary wasps. They are common around Brisbane.
Subfamily Polistinae - Paper Wasps
- Paper Wasps build wide cone shape nest hanging with single stalk. They are social wasps living in colonies in a nest built of "paper".
- Reference:
- 1. Insects of Australia, CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University Press, 2nd Edition 1991, pp 979.
- 2. Insects of Australia and New Zealand - R. J. Tillyard, Angus & Robertson, Ltd, Sydney, 1926, p295.
- 3. What wasp is that? - An interactive identification guide to the Australasian families of Hymenoptera, 2007.
- 4. Northern Territory Insects, A Comprehensive Guide CD - Graham Brown, 2009.
- 5. Family VESPIDAE Potter Wasps, Social Wasps - Australian Faunal Directory, Australian Biological Resources Study.
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