Polistes carnifex

Polistes carnifex
Female P. carnifex from Mazatlán, Mexico
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Vespidae
Subfamily: Polistinae
Tribe: Polistini
Genus: Polistes
Species:
P. carnifex
Binomial name
Polistes carnifex
(Fabricius, 1775)[1]
Synonyms[2][3][4]
  • Vespa carnifex Fabricius, 1775
  • Polistes onerata Lepeletier, 1836
  • Polistes variegatus Lepeletier, 1836
  • Polistes valida Say, 1837
  • Polistes transverso-strigata Spinola, 1851
  • Polistes rufipennis Latreille, 1833

Polistes carnifex, commonly known as the executioner wasp or executioner paper wasp, is a neotropical vespid wasp in the cosmopolitan genus Polistes.

It is a very large yellow and brown paper wasp with a mandible that contains teeth.[5] It establishes small colonies, founded by solitary queens, which build nests under the eaves of buildings or suspended from branches.[6] Foraging adults bring nectar and macerated prey back to the nest to feed to the developing larvae which are individually housed in separate cells in the nest.[6]

  1. ^ Waldren, George (2012-10-22). "Species Polistes carnifex". BugGuide. Iowa State University. Retrieved 2013-11-09.
  2. ^ "Polistes carnifex". Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  3. ^ Snelling, Roy R. (14 January 1955). "Notes on Some Polistes in the American Museum of Natural History with Descriptions of New North American Subspecies (Hymenoptera, Vespidae)". American Museum Novitates (1701): 3–4. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.829.3913.
  4. ^ de Saussure, Henri Louis Frédéric (1853). Études sur la Famille des Vespides. 2. Monographie des Guêpes Sociales, ou de la Tribu des Vespiens, ouvrage faisant suite à la Monographies des Guêpes Solitaires (in French). Vol. 2. Paris: V. Masson. p. 90. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.39973.
  5. ^ Silveira, Orlando Tobias; dos Santos Jr., José Nazareno Araújo (2011). "Comparative morphology of the mandibles of female polistine social wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Polistinae)". Revista Brasileira de Entomologia. 55 (4): 479–500. doi:10.1590/S0085-56262011000400004.
  6. ^ a b Corn, Mary L. (1972). "Notes on the Biology of Polistes carnifex (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) in Costa Rica and Colombia". Psyche: A Journal of Entomology. 79 (3): 150–157. doi:10.1155/1972/78756.