This is a paper wasp nest Casey discovered in a tree next to our house. In early spring, queen wasps emerge from dormancy and search for an appropriate location to construct a nest using wood shavings and saliva, eating nectar for energy while in the process pollinating spring wildflowers. Once the rudimentary nest is ready, she lays eggs that hatch into larvae. The developing larvae are provisioned by the queen with insects until they mature into adult"worker" wasps. The workers take over the labor of expanding the nest while the queen continues to lay around one hundred eggs per day. As the population of the nest increases, developing larvae actually feed the colony by converting insect exoskeletons into sugars they regurgitate to the adults. Towards the end of summer, the original queen lays a special clutch of virgin queen and drone eggs. Once matured, drones and virgin queens disperse form the nest for special mating areas. Drones can discern from queens of their home nests, ensuring interbreeding does not occur. At this point the queen stops laying eggs, shutting off the supply of sugar produced by the larvae, and forcing the workers to scavenge for food until they eventually die. Workers kind of get the short end of the stick. Newly mated queens retreat to a safe location and wait out the long winter until spring, where the whole cycle starts again. Fascinating.
Canon EOS 60D, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM + 1.4x, ISO-400 f/5.6 @ 1/250 sec.
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