Species Polistes (Polistella) variabilis (Fabricius, 1781)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Vespa variabilis Fabricius, J.C. 1781. Species insectorum, exhibentes eorum differentias specificas, synonyma auctorum, loca natalia, metamorphosin adiectis observationibus, descriptionibus. Hamburg et Kilonii : C. E. Bonn Vol. 1 viii + 552 pp. [Date published March 1781: Evenhuis 1997] [466].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH ♂ adult (seen 1929 by L.F. Graham), Australia (as New Holland).

Distribution

States

Queensland

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

Qld: Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Wet Tropics (WT)

Ecological Descriptors

Adult: volant.

Larva: predator, sedentary.

Extra Ecological Information

Social, nests of 'paper'.

General References

Carpenter, J.M. & Brown, G.R. 2022. Catalogue of the Australian social wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Zootaxa 5214(4): 451–495

Kojima, J. 1998. Larvae of social wasps (Insecta: Hymenoptera; Vespidae). Natural History Bulletin of Ibaraki University 2: 7-227 [27] (larval description and illustrations)

Kojima, J. & Carpenter, J.M. 1997. A taxonomic note and nest description of an Australian paper wasp, Polistes variabilis (Fabricius) (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Polistinae). Japanese Journal of Entomology 3(2): 117-122 [Date published 15/11/1997] (diagnostic characters, nest)

Richards, O.W. 1978. The Australian social wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Australian Journal of Zoology Supplementary Series 61: 1-132 [40] (redescription)

History of changes