Aster World, Part 12: Wasps

This handsome wasp is a member of the genus Polistes--the "Umbrella Paper Wasps."  Polistes are large social wasps that share a paper nest that hangs upside-down, by a stalk.  Sterile female workers are the first to emerge in the summer.  Fertile females and males appear late in the season.  

This is a male (that curled antenna is the give-away).

   

Here he is in action, on Hairy Asters (Symphyotrichum pilosum).  

Many native wildflowers have already gone to seed.  This late-emerging wasp needs nectar to fuel his search for a fertile female.  Thank goodness for late-blooming asters!

Also depending on late-blooming asters is this wonderful potter wasp, Eumenes bollii.   This is a tiny wasp that packs remarkable shapes and segments into a small space.  Especially striking is the bulbous abdomen:

Eumenes bollii on Hairy Asters, October 2020.

This wasp does not appear often in Kansas.  Bugguide.net includes only two other entries, both from a September, in Cheyenne and Johnson Counties.   The sighting above is the only entry for Geary County and the only one from an October.  

Yet another species of potter wasp came to visit the asters, this one from the genus Euodynerus.  Here (s)he is in action:

Potter Wasp, Euodynerus sp., on Hairy Asters.

October 2021.