Worker Wasp covered in fungus, caused by the wet summer Vespula Vulgaris
There are several very similar species of social paper wasps in Britain such as the Common Wasp Vespula vulgaris and the German Wasp Vespula germanica. The large sleepy queen emerges from hibernation in the spring, ready equipped with a store of sperm from mating with the males the previous year. She can build a little walnut sized nest all on her own and hatch out a few sterile female workers who'll then go on to help her build the colony: chewing wood and spitting it out to make rows of papery, hexagonal cells for the queen to lay eggs in, feeding and cooling the grubs, and defending the nest. The colony therefore gets bigger and bigger. Free-standing ones hanging from branches or rafters rarely get huge as they're very delicate and attractive to hungry animals such as mice and badgers. Occasionally however one sees a beautifully symmetrical big paper nest hanging in the air in a tree or hedge. But the really big nests are generally in holes in the ground or hollow trees .
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Photo credit: © Flake / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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