---
title: "What the sources say about the Common Wasp | AnimalTracks.wiki"
description: "42 claims from the Common Wasp profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it."
image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/common-wasp-1.webp"
canonical: "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/common-wasp/sources/"
---

# What the sources say about the Common Wasp (*Vespula vulgaris*)

> 42 claims from the Common Wasp profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it. A "..." marks a cut in a quote and [brackets] an insertion.

Profile: [Common Wasp](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/common-wasp/)

## Common Wasp. Buglife.

https://www.buglife.org.uk/bugs/bug-directory/common-wasp/

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Most common wasps live only a few weeks, says the insect charity Buglife, but a mated queen hibernates and may survive for up to a year. | most wasps will only live for a few weeks, but the mated Queen will hibernate underground to lay her eggs in summer so they may survive for up to a year |

## Common wasp. Welsh Wildlife (The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales).

https://www.welshwildlife.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/bees-and-wasps/common-wasp

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Not Evaluated | Common. (note: stats.conservationStatus; no Red List assessment found for Vespula vulgaris on GBIF or Crossref; the Welsh page gives only a local abundance note; quote is the page's own conservation-status line, not an IUCN category) |
| nests of paper, which the queen makes by chewing up wood | live in nests built of ‘paper’, which is formed by the queen chewing up wood |
| Nests in gaps in houses and roofs | They live in large groups in gaps in houses and roofs |
| widespread across UK habitats from woodland to towns and gardens | Distribution
Widespread. (note: stats.habitat; the page's habitat list names Woodland and Towns and gardens; the page is a UK wildlife trust's) |
| Nectar, rotten fruit and sugary food; the young are fed on small insects | They feed on high energy food like nectar, rotten fruit and sugary picnics, whilst their young are fed on small insects. (note: stats.diet) |
| the Welsh Wildlife Trust gives its length as up to 2 cm | Length: up to 2cm |
| Adults go for high-energy food: nectar, rotten fruit, sugary picnics. Their young get small insects instead. | They feed on high energy food like nectar, rotten fruit and sugary picnics, whilst their young are fed on small insects. |
| The Welsh Wildlife Trust calls them important pollinators and pest controllers, and says the species is widespread in the UK, with sightings from April to October. | wasps are actually important pollinators and pest controllers (note: widespread: 'Distribution Widespread.'; 'When to see April to October') |
| sightings from April to October | When to see
April to October |
| Common wasps live in large groups | They live in large groups in gaps in houses and roofs |

## Kovac & Stabentheiner (2012). Does size matter? Biology Open.

https://doi.org/10.1242/bio.20121156

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| In a study comparing hornets with two Vespula wasps (this species and the German wasp), the insects had mean thorax temperatures of 30 to 40°C as they arrived at the nest entrance and 33 to 40°C as they left, about 5 to 18°C above the surrounding air. | they exhibited similarities in the dependence of thorax temperature on T a on their arrival (mean T th  =  30–40°C) and departure (mean T th  =  33–40°C) at the nest entrance (note: hornets Vespa crabro and Vespula vulgaris and V. germanica; excess below) |
| the authors read that gap as a high endothermic capacity | The thorax temperature excess (T th −T a ) above ambient air of about 5–18°C indicates a high endothermic capacity in both hornets and wasps. |
| Common wasps caught leaving their nests averaged 84.1 mg in that study | Vespula vulgaris weighed on average 84.1±19.0 mg ( n  = 147) (note: mean of insects leaving the nest; method quote below; also FAQ) |
| caught leaving their nests | For determination of the body weight, from each colony insects leaving the nest were captured and weighed with a balance to the nearest 0.1 mg (note: scope of the 84.1 mg mean (body and FAQ)) |
| The hornets measured alongside them averaged 477.5 mg, which is 5.7 times more. | the hornets had a mean weight of 477.5±59.9 mg ( n  = 50). The hornets weighed the 5.7 fold of V. vulgaris |
| The study's five common wasp colonies nested in wall hollows or lofts. | six wasp colonies, five Vespula vulgaris and one Vespula germanica (Vespidae, Hymenoptera). The hornet nests were located in tree hollows or abandoned bird nest boxes. The wasps nested in wall hollows or lofts ( V. vulgaris ) |
| In one study, 147 common wasps caught leaving their nests averaged 84.1 mg. | Vespula vulgaris weighed on average 84.1±19.0 mg ( n  = 147) |
| about 5 to 18°C above the surrounding air | The thorax temperature excess (T th −T a ) above ambient air of about 5–18°C (note: scope: both hornets and wasps in the study) |
| heats its own thorax 5 to 18°C above the surrounding air | they exhibited similarities in the dependence of thorax temperature on T a on their arrival (mean T th  =  30–40°C) and departure (mean T th  =  33–40°C) at the nest entrance (note: vibe.reason; same quote as the body sentence "In a study comparing hornets with two Vespula wasps (this species and the German") |
| weightKg: 0.0000841 | Vespula vulgaris weighed on average 84.1±19.0 mg (note: battleStats.weightKg, task #1254; workers at the nest entrance) |

## Foster & Ratnieks (2001). Convergent evolution of worker policing by egg eating in the honeybee and common wasp. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2000.1346

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| A paper-nest builder whose workers police the colony by eating worker-laid eggs. | Workers rapidly removed worker-laid eggs but left most queen-laid eggs (note: tagline; nest of paper below) |
| Workers rapidly remove worker-laid eggs: 4 of 120 were left after an hour, against 106 of 120 queen eggs | four out of 120 worker eggs versus 106 out of 120 queen eggs remained after 1h (note: stats.superpower; body blockquote; FAQ) |
| Workers quickly clear away eggs laid by other workers while leaving the queen's alone: after an hour, four of 120 worker eggs were still there, against 106 of 120 queen eggs. | Workers rapidly removed worker-laid eggs but left most queen-laid eggs (four out of 120 worker eggs versus 106 out of 120 queen eggs remained after 1h). |
| Dissecting 1,150 workers from six colonies found that 4% had active ovaries, roughly five to 25 workers per colony. | Ovary dissection (1150 workers from six colonies) revealed that a small but significant number of workers have active ovaries (4%) equivalent to approximately five to 25 workers per colony. |
| microsatellite (DNA marker) analysis of 270 males detected no workers' sons | microsatellite analysis of males (270 individuals from nine colonies) detected no workers' sons |
| Honeybees evolved the same egg-eating policing separately. | Worker policing by egg eating has convergently evolved in the common wasp and the honeybee |
| Yes. When researchers tested common wasp workers, an hour later 4 of 120 worker-laid eggs remained, but 106 of 120 queen-laid eggs were still there. The authors note that honeybees evolved the same habit separately. | four out of 120 worker eggs versus 106 out of 120 queen eggs remained after 1h |

## Steinmetz & Schmolz (2005). Nest odor dynamics in the social wasp Vespula vulgaris. Naturwissenschaften.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-005-0006-9

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Aggression toward recently killed nestmates was about 12%, but about 30% toward nestmates killed 19 days earlier, which the authors say indicates a change of the nest odor within the colony. | The aggression rate increased from about 12% toward recently killed nestmates up to 30% toward nestmates killed 19 days before the experiment. |
| which the authors say indicates a change of the nest odor within the colony | This indicates a change of the nest odor within the colony. |
| Researchers stored dead nestmates in a freezer, then tested how aggressively colonies treated them. | we tested the aggression rates toward dead nestmates that had been stored for 10 min, 10 and 19 days outside their colonies at -76 degrees C |
| Two neighbouring colonies, kept apart by a solid wall for 28 days, treated dead foragers from next door as harshly as dead strangers, about 39% each. | the colony members treated dead foragers from the neighbor nest as aggressively as dead foreign, non-neighbor workers (about 39% each) (note: 28 days wall: 'for 28 days' quote below) |
| kept apart by a solid wall for 28 days | we kept two colonies each in one nest box with a complete separation of both neighbor nests by a solid wall inside the box for 28 days |
| Seventeen days after a metal grid replaced the wall, letting air pass between them, aggression toward dead neighbours had fallen to about 11%. | Seventeen days after the replacement of the solid wall by a metallic grid, which allowed no physical contact but air exchange between the two neighbor colonies, the aggression rates toward foreign workers and nestmates remained relatively unaffected whereas it decreased significantly toward dead neighbors to about 11%. |

## Avarguès-Weber et al. (2017). Recognition of human face images by the free flying wasp Vespula vulgaris. Animal Behavior and Cognition.

https://doi.org/10.26451/abc.04.03.09.2017

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| In one experiment, free-flying wasps learned to tell apart similar photos of human faces, then picked the trained face out from new ones; they did significantly worse once the photos were rotated 180°. | Freely flying individual wasps were trained in an appetitive-aversive differential conditioning procedure to discriminate between perceptually similar human face images from a standard face recognition test. The wasps could then recognize the target face from novel dissimilar or similar human faces, but showed a significant drop in performance when the stimuli were rotated by 180° |
| Wasps trained with rewards and penalties could pick out the target face from new faces, though they did worse when the pictures were turned upside down. | The wasps could then recognize the target face from novel dissimilar or similar human faces, but showed a significant drop in performance when the stimuli were rotated by 180° |
| The study's authors say the species is unlikely to have any special face-processing ability. | We investigated the visual capacities of the widespread invasive wasp Vespula vulgaris , which is unlikely to have any specialization for face processing. |
| Vision gets tested too. | We investigated the visual capacities of the widespread invasive wasp Vespula vulgaris (note: transition sentence) |

## Donovan et al. (1992). Comparative characteristics of nests of Vespula germanica (F.) and Vespula vulgaris (L.) (Hymenoptera: Vespinae) from Christchurch City, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Zoology.

https://doi.org/10.1080/03014223.1992.10423252

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| In a 1987 to 1989 study in Christchurch, some German wasp nests survived the winter, but all common wasp nests died by June. | Some Getman wasp nests survived the winter and began producing new worker cells by late June, but all common wasp nests died by June (note: 'Getman' is the abstract's typo for German; dates: abstract July 1987 to June 1989, City of Christchurch) |
| In New Zealand it is an introduced species. | the adventive social vespines the German wasp (note: adventive = introduced) |
| a 1987 to 1989 study in Christchurch | From July 1987 to June 1989, 141 nests and 365 nests, respectively, of the adventive social vespines the German wasp, Vespula germanica (F.), and the common wasp V. vulgaris (L.), from the City of Christchurch, New Zealand |

## Blank et al. (2010). Identification, Recombinant Expression, and Characterization of the 100 kDa High Molecular Weight Hymenoptera Venom Allergens Api m 5 and Ves v 3. The Journal of Immunology.

https://doi.org/10.4049/jimmunol.0803709

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| tags: venomous | identification of its homologue Ves v 3 in yellow jacket (Vespula vulgaris) venom (note: tags, task #1254) |