Australian paper wasp
The Australian paper wasp is a slim wasp with long thin legs, a yellow face and yellow and dark bands. It builds a grey nest made of paper. It makes the paper itself by chewing wood and mixing it with its spit.
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Fun facts
Its nest looks like an upside-down cone full of six-sided rooms.
Unlike most wasps, it often moves back into an old nest year after year.
Some families spend the cold months huddled together on top of their nest.
A nest usually has about two queens, and the queens look just like the workers.
It was carried to New Zealand by accident in the 1880s and still lives there.
Most asked questions about Australian paper wasp
?What is the paper wasp's nest made of?
Paper that the wasps make by chewing wood and mixing it with their spit.
?Are Australian paper wasps useful?
Yes. They visit flowers and help pollinate many plants.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Polistes humilis
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Vespidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Vespidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Polistes humilis (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by P.D. Amara. CC0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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