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Vespinae

Paper wasps of Africa and Madagascar

(Life: Kingdom: Metazoa (animals); Phylum: Arthropoda; Class: Hexapoda; Order: Hymenoptera; Superfamily: Vespoidea; Family: Vespidae)

Classification

Belonogaster Saussure,1853

 

Polistes Latreille,1802

Ropalidia Guerin,1831

 

Vespula Thomson,1869

Distribution

Worldwide.

Biology

Social, constructing communal paper nests. Larvae are fed on chewed-up, soft-bodied insects such as caterpillars.

References

Brothers, D.J. & Finnamore A.T. 1993. Superfamily Vespoidea (pp. 161-278). In GOULET, H. & HUBER, J. (eds). Hymenoptera of the World: an identification guide to families. Research Branch, Agriculture Canada, Ottawa, Canada, 668 pp.

Bequaert, J.C. 1918. A revision of the Vespidae of the Belgian Congo based on the collection of the American Museum Congo Expedition: with a list of Ethiopian diplopterous wasps. Bulletin of the AMNH 39: 1-384.

Carpenter, J. M. & M. Madl. 2009. A catalogue of the Vespidae of the Malagasy Subregion (Insecta, Hymenoptera). Linzer Biologische Beiträge 41 (2): 1871-1935.

Richards, O.W. 1982. A revision of the genus Belonogaster de Saussure (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Bull. Brit. Mus. Nat. Hist. Entomol 44: 31–114.

Credits

Photographs © Vida van der Walt (Pretoria).


Web author Simon van Noort (Iziko South African Museum)

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