Yellowjackets
God Save the Yellow Jacket Queens?
Yep, click here to read about my experience with John Lydon, of Sex Pistols fame, as he was host for a Discovery Channel insect show.
Eastern Yellow Jacket, Vespula maculifrons
Single Queen Yellowjacket, relatively small colonies. Builds subterranean nests, often at the base of trees or under shrubbery in loose soil. Colonies often only persist one year, even in portions of Northern Florida.
Thorax pronotum has large shield shaped black coloration.
click on image for larger version
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Southern Yellowjacket, Vespula squamosa. These are captures from a Macro video that is embedded at the bottom of this page. One of the diagnostic features of Vespula is the presence of many hairs around the head and thorax. Paper wasps don't have such dense hairs.This shot shows the hairs very well. Honeybees have even denser hair, but have hairs that are "split ends". Yellowjackets probably have a bigger hair care budget. (j/k) Click on image for larger version. photo credit: Richard Martyniak
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Southern Yellowjacket, Vespula squamosa. Yellow Jackets have very strong mandibles, well suited for excavating soil and even chewing through wood if needed. Note the 'tibial spurs" on the legs, as this is a good feature that honey bees do not possess. Click on image for larger version. photo credit: Richard Martyniak
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Southern Yellowjacket, Vespula squamosa. Yellowjackets defend their colony with nearly unmatched gusto. Multiple guards are posted at nest openings, just wating for provocation, which can be as simple as a waft of human scent. This is an example of a defensive posture:Click on image for larger version. photo credit: Richard Martyniak
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Southern Yellowjacket, Vespula squamosa. Stinger apparatus is really modified female reproductive parts. Yellowjacket stingers are about twice as long as Honey bee stingers, and most of us sting veterans agree that they hurt more than that! Click on image for larger version. photo credit: Richard Martyniak
Short Yellowjacket video(Vespula squamosa) video. credit: Richard Martyniak
Southern Yellowjackets, V. squamosa, are the predominate yellowjacket species in Florida and have multiple queens per colony, sometimes numbering in the hundreds. Because of this reproductive potential, colonies can attain massive size, often numbering over 100,000 indivicuals.
At the beginning, notice the multiple openings, and high numbers of individuals entering and leaving the colony.
