Naomi SaphraAug 12, 2023
what are these wasps doing??? There's 3 and one of them is huge (different species?)
Show threadAndrew Drake

@nsaphra looks like an American yellowjacket (V. alascensis) queen with two drones (males), presumably mating. https://bugguide.net/node/view/14087 has pictures showing the queen/drone markings.

We have a lot of yellow-faced bumblebees around us, and certain times of year I'll see the queen out foraging. The dead giveaway is that she's *at least* twice the size of a normal worker! Absolutely massive bee.

Species Vespula alascensis - American Yellowjacket

An online resource devoted to North American insects, spiders and their kin, offering identification, images, and information.

Aug 12, 2023 at 6:02pmWeb
Show threadNaomi SaphraAug 12, 2023
@adrake wow, the queen forages? she doesn't have the workers just go out and get food? Interesting. A childhood friend of mine https://www.caryinstitute.org/science/scientific-staff/dr-july-pilowsky used to work with paper wasps to study how eusociality emerges, and they just add more queens if there's lots of food around
Dr July Pilowsky

Dr. Pilowsky is collaborating with Dr. Barbara Han and the interdisciplinary Verena Institute on disease ecology and viral spillover.

Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Show threadAndrew DrakeAug 12, 2023

@nsaphra yellow-faced bumblebees do, yeah. The queens only live for a year, born in the fall, they emerge, mate, find a new nesting site and hibernate through the winter there. Come spring they lay eggs and incubate the first generation of workers, and have to forage until the workers can take over. Then, towards the end of their lives, once the new queen and male eggs are laid, they return to foraging. They don't need to lay any more eggs, so gathering food for the next generation is presumably the most valuable thing for them to do before they die.

(I don't know anything about yellowjacket foraging behavior, thankfully we have a lot fewer of them than bumblebees!)

Show threadNaomi SaphraAug 13, 2023
@adrake ok speaking of July I just asked them and they ! said ! not mating, not even males. Workers staging a coup!!!!!! https://www.livescience.com/52669-why-worker-wasps-kill-queens.html
Revolt in the Hive: Why Worker Wasps Sometimes Kill Their Queens

Workers in wasp nests sometimes kill their queens, even though these egg-laying wasps are also their mothers. Now, researchers think they might know why such murders take place.

Live Science
Show threadAndrew DrakeAug 13, 2023
@nsaphra Wow! That is much cooler. Quite a lucky find!