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TranslateVespula germanica, (Queen)
Queen Vespula germanica.
The Queen is about 20 mm (0.79 in) in length.
As soon as spring arrives, this will be the time the Vespula germanica queens will be coming out of hibernation. They tend to fly low to the ground searching spring flowers for food and suitable nesting sites. For her nest construction she will search for a suitable size hole within the ground or in an upright structure. When a suitable site is found she will move her wings in a dance like performance, her wing movements allow her to locate the site even after she has left the area.
When building the nest, she will use a pulp containing chewed wood fibres mixed with her saliva. A cylindrical column is made by the queen known as a “petiole” which is covered by a chemical she produces which repels ants. When this is completed, she produces a single cell and surrounds it with a further six cells; giving the cells their typical hexagonal shape. She continues building in layers up to 20 to 30 cells and lays one egg in each cell. When the eggs have hatched, she will divide her time between feeding the larvae and nest building.
Soon the queen’s role is taken over by the new workers for foraging and nest maintenance, as the queen’s time is now fully concentrated to just egg laying. Her abdomen swells as her ovaries develop and becomes distended with eggs, this is when she loses the ability to fly again. Each nest may contain 5,000-10,000 individuals and is spherical in shape.
The colony enters a change as the workers start to build queen cells, when this stage is reached; worker cells are no longer built. While this change is happening, the remaining larvae in the worker cells continue to reach maturity. Although it can take longer for the worker larvae to reach maturity as most of the food brought into the nest at this stage is fed to the new queens (known as “gyne”) and also to the male drone larvae. Any worker eggs laid now will be destroyed by the female workers.
By late summer when this stage is reached, the original queen soon dies and the new virgin queens emerge from the nest with the male drones, soon they will mate before hibernating.
This is when the nest starts to deteriorate and the wasps left behind will die through starvation and the cold.
Although in the south of England, V. germanica nests may survive through a mild winter and reach the next season. If this occurs, the nest will become much larger size than in the previous year. V. germanica nests have more of a chance to survive throughout the winter than V. Vulgaris nests because it mostly comes from the variation in prey the different species feeds on. Vespula vulgaris food sources are greatly affected by the temperature while that of Vespula germanica are not, providing them with a much higher chance of survival even during the winter. If they are able to continue to feed throughout a mild winter this can avoid the nest deteriorating to cannibalism.
Read MoreThe Queen is about 20 mm (0.79 in) in length.
As soon as spring arrives, this will be the time the Vespula germanica queens will be coming out of hibernation. They tend to fly low to the ground searching spring flowers for food and suitable nesting sites. For her nest construction she will search for a suitable size hole within the ground or in an upright structure. When a suitable site is found she will move her wings in a dance like performance, her wing movements allow her to locate the site even after she has left the area.
When building the nest, she will use a pulp containing chewed wood fibres mixed with her saliva. A cylindrical column is made by the queen known as a “petiole” which is covered by a chemical she produces which repels ants. When this is completed, she produces a single cell and surrounds it with a further six cells; giving the cells their typical hexagonal shape. She continues building in layers up to 20 to 30 cells and lays one egg in each cell. When the eggs have hatched, she will divide her time between feeding the larvae and nest building.
Soon the queen’s role is taken over by the new workers for foraging and nest maintenance, as the queen’s time is now fully concentrated to just egg laying. Her abdomen swells as her ovaries develop and becomes distended with eggs, this is when she loses the ability to fly again. Each nest may contain 5,000-10,000 individuals and is spherical in shape.
The colony enters a change as the workers start to build queen cells, when this stage is reached; worker cells are no longer built. While this change is happening, the remaining larvae in the worker cells continue to reach maturity. Although it can take longer for the worker larvae to reach maturity as most of the food brought into the nest at this stage is fed to the new queens (known as “gyne”) and also to the male drone larvae. Any worker eggs laid now will be destroyed by the female workers.
By late summer when this stage is reached, the original queen soon dies and the new virgin queens emerge from the nest with the male drones, soon they will mate before hibernating.
This is when the nest starts to deteriorate and the wasps left behind will die through starvation and the cold.
Although in the south of England, V. germanica nests may survive through a mild winter and reach the next season. If this occurs, the nest will become much larger size than in the previous year. V. germanica nests have more of a chance to survive throughout the winter than V. Vulgaris nests because it mostly comes from the variation in prey the different species feeds on. Vespula vulgaris food sources are greatly affected by the temperature while that of Vespula germanica are not, providing them with a much higher chance of survival even during the winter. If they are able to continue to feed throughout a mild winter this can avoid the nest deteriorating to cannibalism.
