Subfamily Polistinae

Museums

Regional Maps

Introduction

Polistinae, commonly called papernest wasps, are small to quite large, social wasps. In Australia, the family Polistinae is represented by 43 species and subspecies in two genera Polistes and Ropalidia. Two introduced species of the genus Polistes have apparently become established in Australia; Polistes chinensis antennalis (Pérez) is recorded from the Sydney region and Norfolk Is., while Polistes dominulus (Christ) is widespread in the Perth area. The greatest diversity is in northern Queensland; no species occur naturally in Tasmania or in the south of Western Australia. Worldwide the Polistinae comprises more than 800 species in 27 genera (Carpenter 1996; Carpenter & Kojima 1997).

The subfamily can be divided into four monophyletic tribes (Carpenter 1993). The Polistini comprises the cosmopolitan genus Polistes; the Mischocyttarini with Mischocyttarus is confined to the New World; the Ropalidiini including four genera endemic to the Old World (Belonogaster, Parapolybia, Polybioides and Ropalidia); and Epiponini including the remaining 21 New World genera (Kojima & Carpenter 1997).

The 'paper' nests, constructed from masticated plant fibres, are founded by one or several females. As adults remain after emergence, the number of individuals in each nest increases with age, up to several hundreds in Ropalidia. Adults are often collected on flowers. Larvae are fed progressively on masticated insects, mainly larval Lepidoptera (Evans & West Eberhard 1970; Richards 1978; Breed et al. 1982). Wenzel (1998) gave a generic key to the nests of Polistinae worldwide.

General References

Breed, M.D., Michener, C.D. & Evans, H.E. (eds) 1982. The Biology of Social Insects. Proceedings of the Ninth Congress of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects, Boulder, Colorado, August 1982. Boulder : Westview Press 419 pp.

Carpenter, J.M. 1993. Biogeographic patterns in the Vespidae (Hymenoptera): Two views of Africa and South America. pp. 139-155 in Goldblatt, P. (ed.). Biological Relationships between Africa and South America. New Haven : Yale University Press.

Carpenter, J.M. 1996. Phylogeny and biogeography of Polistes. pp. 18-57 in Turillazzi, S. & West-Eberhard, M.J. (eds). Natural History and Evolution of Paper-wasps. Oxford : Oxford University Press xiv 400 pp.

Carpenter, J.M. & Kojima, J. 1997. Checklist of the species in the subfamily Vespinae (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Natural History Bulletin of Ibaraki University 1: 51-92

Evans, H.E. & West Eberhard, M.J. 1970. The Wasps. Ann Arbor : Univ. Michigan 265 pp.

Kojima, J. & Carpenter, J.M. 1997. Catalog of species in the Polistine tribe Ropalidiini (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). American Museum Novitates 3199: 1-96 [Date published 16/05/1997]

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

Wenzel, J.W. 1998. A generic key to the nests of hornets, yellowjackets, and paper wasps worldwide (Vespidae: Vespinae, Polistinae). American Museum Novitates 3224: 1-39 [Date published 6/Apr/1998]

History of changes