| Polistes annularis | |
|---|---|
| Nest of Polistes annularis | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Vespidae |
| Genus: | Polistes |
| Subgenus: | Aphanilopterus |
| Species: | P. annularis |
| Binomial name | |
| Polistes annularis (Linnaeus, 1763) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Polistes annularis is a species of paper wasp which lives in North America.
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Unusually for a North American Polistes, P. annularis shows little sexual dimorphism in coloration.[1] It resembles Polistes metricus, which differs from P. annularis in a number of ways, including the coloration of the antennae and thorax.[1] The forewings are 18.5–23.5 mm (0.73–0.93 in) long in females, and 17.5–19.5 mm (0.69–0.77 in) long in males.[1]
There is geographical variation in coloration between northern and southern populations. In the north, the thorax P. annularis has ferruginous (rust-red) markings on a predominantly black background, while in the south, the thorax is mostly ferruginous, with black markings.[1] The legs also vary from black to ferruginous.[1]
Polistes annularis is found across the eastern United States from New York to Florida, and west to South Dakota to Texas.[1]
Polistes annularis forms its nests on the branches of trees and shrubs as well as in sheltered parts of some buildings.[1] The nests differ markedly from those of other species in the genus Polistes. They are much larger, with around 500 cells, and are wide, rather than the slender, elongate nests seen in some other species.[2]
P. annularis preys on caterpillars from a large number of lepidopteran families, including Arctiidae, Saturniidae, Geometridae, Limacodidae, Lymantriidae, Notodontidae, Nymphalidae, Sphingidae, Erebidae, Noctuidae, Amphisbatidae and Elachistidae.[1]
The first description of Polistes annularis was published by Carl Linnaeus in his 1763 Centuria Insectorum, where he named the species Vespa annularis.[3] It was moved to the genus Polistes by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1804, two years after Pierre André Latreille had erected the new genus.[4] It is placed in the New World subgenus Aphanilopterus.[5][6]