Executioner wasp
The executioner wasp is a big yellow and brown paper wasp from Central and South America. It builds small paper nests under roofs or hanging from branches. Each baby wasp lives in its own little room in the nest.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
In Paraguay people call it the hummingbird wasp, because it is so big.
Its jaws have little teeth on them.
Each nest is started by one queen all on her own.
The very first one studied by scientists was caught in Brazil in 1768, on Captain Cook's famous voyage, and is still kept in a museum in London.
Most asked questions about Executioner wasp
?Why is it called the executioner wasp?
Its scientific name carnifex means executioner in Latin, and the English name was made from that.
?Where does the executioner wasp live?
In the warm parts of the Americas, from Mexico to Brazil and Paraguay.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Polistes carnifex
- Named by
- Fabricius, 1775
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Vespidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Vespidae
- Lives on
- North America, South America
- Also known as
- Executioner paper wasp
Where the facts come from
- Polistes carnifex (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 Sapphic. CC BY-SA 3.0, 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 hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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