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Ropalidia capensis (Saussure)

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

Icaria capensis Saussure, 1862. Holotype in ?  Type Locality: Cape of Good Hope, Western Cape, South Africa.

Photographs © Desiré Pelser (Kloof, Durban).

Species determination by Ozren Polašek (this is the dark form of R. capensis).

Distribution

Namibia, South Africa.

Biology

 Social, constructing communal, vertically orientated paper nests with horizontally orientated cells. (Polistes construct horizontally orientated combs with vertically orientated cells). Larvae are fed on chewed-up, soft-bodied insects such as caterpillars. See Polistinae Paper wasp home page for more details.

References

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 American Museum of Natural History 39: 1-384.

Polašek O, Onah I, Kehinde T, Rojo V, van Noort S, Carpenter JM. 2025. Revision of the mainland African species of the Old World social wasp genus Ropalidia Guérin-Méneville 1831 (Hymenoptera; Vespidae). Zootaxa 5626 (1): 001–142. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5626.1.1

Credits

Photographs © Desiré Pelser (Kloof, Durban).

Map illustration © Simon van Noort (Iziko Museums of South Africa).

Web author Simon van Noort (Iziko South African Museum)

 

Citation: van Noort, S. 2025. WaspWeb: Hymenoptera of the World. URL: www.waspweb.org (accessed on <day/month/year>).

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