<i>Vespula squamosa</i> : A Yellow Jacket Wasp Evolving Toward Parasitism

Abstract

Evidence from behavior and from nest architecture implicates Vespula squamosa as a temporary, apparently facultative social parasite of V. maculifrons . Analysis of 66 V. squamosa nests collected in northern Georgia revealed that 54 were initially built by V. maculifrons . Three very young V. maculifrons nests, each with a V. squamosa queen and workers of both species, confirmed the parasitic propensity.