European paper wasp

The European paper wasp (Polistes dominula) is one of the most common and well-known species of social wasps in the genus Polistes. Its diet is more diverse than those of most Polistes species—many genera of insects versus mainly caterpillars in other Polistes—giving it superior survivability compared to other wasp species during a shortage of resources. The dominant females are the principal egg layers, while the subordinate females ("auxiliaries") or workers primarily forage and do not lay eggs. This hierarchy is not permanent, though; when the queen is removed from the nest, the second-most dominant female takes over the role of the previous queen. Dominance in females is determined by the severity of the scatteredness in the coloration of the clypeus (face), whereas dominance in males is shown by the variation of spots of their abdomens. P. dominula is common and cosmopolitan due to their exceptional survival features such as productive colony cycle, short development time, and higher ability to endure predator attacks. These wasps have a lek-based mating system. Unlike most social insects, 35% of P. dominula wasps in a colony are unrelated. It is considered an invasive species in Canada and the United States. The European paper wasp was originally described in 1791 by Johann Ludwig Christ as Vespa dominula. The specific epithet dominula is a noun meaning "little mistress", and following the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, species epithets which are nouns do not change when a species is placed in a different genus. Authors who were unaware that dominula was a noun have misspelled the species name as "dominulus" for decades. Another cause of the confusion in the species' name was the ambiguous distinction between masculine and feminine genitive nouns. P. dominula is often referred to as the European paper wasp because of its native distribution and its nests, which are constructed from paper and saliva. It is also frequently referred to in older literature as Polistes gallicus, a separate species with which it was often confused.