Northern paper wasp
The northern paper wasp is a slim, dark brown wasp with a thin waist. It builds an umbrella-shaped paper nest that hangs from a single stalk. Each wasp has its own pattern of marks on its face, a bit like a fingerprint.
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Fun facts
It makes paper by chewing wood and mixing it with spit into a soft pulp.
In the north, many females are almost completely black, while southern ones have more colourful marks.
Its nest hangs from just one thin stalk.
In spring, one female wakes up from her winter sleep and starts a brand new nest all by herself.
The first babies to grow up are worker daughters who help their mother look after the nest.
Most asked questions about Northern paper wasp
?Where does the northern paper wasp build its nest?
Near woods, where there is wood to make paper from, and often on houses and sheds.
?How big is a northern paper wasp?
It is about 1.5 to 2 centimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Polistes fuscatus
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Vespidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Vespidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Dark paper wasp
Where the facts come from
- Polistes fuscatus (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 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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