Description
V. pensylvanica is a predatory species that feeds on a wide range of invertebrate taxa (and occasionally even on slugs) and this has great potential for negative impact on the native fauna in insular habitats. In its genus, it is one of the few species that also has a scavenging habit as opposed to a strictly predatory habit and is thus considered a major pest to humankind. Along with two other species — the "common wasp" or "yellowjacket" (Vespula vulgaris) and the "German wasp" or "European wasp" (Vespula germanica) — V. pensylvanica is part of the "Vespula vulgaris species group" which together are the most abundant and bothersome of eusocial wasps species. With a predilection for scavenging carrion that attracts it to the human food and garbage, V. pensylvanica is the most significant pest yellowjacket in western North America.
Vespula pensylvanica shares its basic yellow and black pattern with other species of wasp in genus Vespula and its sister genus Dolichovespula which are collectively known in North America by the common name "yellowjacket." V. pensylvanica, however, is the only member of its species group that has a complete yellow eye ring around each compound eye. This eye ring is also visible in queen wasps of this species.
Occasionally, the eye loop is entirely absent in males; it can be broadly interrupted in both sexes but rarely so in females. Males without a yellow eye loop can be distinguished from V. germanica by more subtle morphological differences, viz, "the deeply emarginate or spotted subantennal mark on the frons, the slender preapical portion of the aedeagus, and the much more densely pubescent apical margin of tergum". The majority of females of Vespula squamosa also have a narrow eye loop but this species shows a radically different metasomal pattern.
The length of this species's fore wing is 8.5–10.5 mm in workers, 12.5–14.5 mm in queens, and 12.5–14.0 mm in males.
Read more about this topic: Vespula Pensylvanica
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