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Posted by Rex Rowan on 21:43:10 03/09/14
An entomologist with the American Entomological Institute is trying to find a few places in South Florida to collect paper wasps for a taxonomic study. Can anyone make a suggestion? Wildlife Management Areas? County parks? (To clarify, when I say "paper wasps," I'm not talking about wasps that make the big football-shaped nest, which is the work of the Bald-face Hornet; I m talking about wasps that construct an open-face nest, generally hanging from under a sheltering horizontal surface like eaves or a kiosk, or from a branch or main stem of a shrub or robust weed like dog fennel.) Several of the currently-recognized species seem to be species groups, each containing two or four new, undescribed species. There is also one species, Polistes bahamensis, which has been photographed several times in Florida; however the photographs seem to show species other than P. bahamensis, and we're trying to confirm the presence of that species in Florida. We would be grateful for any suggested locations where we might be able to collect legally.
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