Nest
Dolichovespula species (for example, the aerial yellow jacket, Dolichovespula arenaria, and the bald-faced hornet, Dolichovespula maculata) tend to create exposed aerial nests (a feature shared with true hornets, which has led to some confusion as to the use of the name "hornet").
Vespula species, in contrast, build concealed nests, usually underground.
Yellow jacket nests usually last for only one season, dying off in winter. The nest is started by a single queen, called the "foundress". Typically, a nest can reach the size of a basketball by the end of a season. In parts of Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, and southwestern coastal areas of the United States, the winters are mild enough to allow nest overwintering. Nests that survive multiple seasons become massive and often possess multiple egg-laying queens.
Read more about this topic: Yellow Jacket
Famous quotes containing the word nest:
“A little nest that’s nestled where the roses bloom.”
—George Whiting (1884–1943)
“Under that wide hearth
a nest of rattlers,
they’ll knot a hundred together,
had wintered and were coming awake.
The warming rock
flushed them out early.”
—Robert Morgan (b. 1944)
“I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.... Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
—Harper Lee (b. 1926)