(excerpt)
On 25 May 1995, a single foundress colony of Polistes dominulus (Christ) was discovered on a study site at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan (Oakland County). This is the first record of Polistes dominulus in the state of Michigan

Carpenter, James M

Judd, Timothy M

English

Valparaiso University

The Great Lakes Entomologist Volume 29 Number 1 - Spring 1996 Number 1 - Spring 1996 Article 9 April 1996 Polistes Dominulus (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) Found in Michigan Timothy M. Judd Oakland University James M. Carpenter American Museum of Natural History Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/tgle  Part of the Entomology Commons Recommended Citation Judd, Timothy M. and Carpenter, James M. 1996. "Polistes Dominulus (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) Found in Michigan," The Great Lakes Entomologist, vol 29 (1) Available at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/tgle/vol29/iss1/9 This Peer-Review Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Biology at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Great Lakes Entomologist by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at scholar@valpo.edu. 1996 45THE GREAT LAKES ENTOMOLOGIST POLISTES DOMINULUS (HYMENOPTERA: VESPIDAEj FOUND IN MICHIGAN Timothy M. Judd! and James M. Carpenter2 On 25 May 1995, a single foundress colony of Polistes dominulus (Christ) was discovered on a study site at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan (Oakland County). This is the first record of Polistes dominulus in the state of Michigan. The nest was constructed in a nest box set out for Polistes fuscatus (Fabricius), The nest boxes are small wooden boxes with a screen on one e d to allow wasps to fly in and out but to prevent vertebrates from reaching them. They are painted brown on the outside and white on t e inside. The boxes are suspended from a wooden cross piece attached to a metal the box hangs about 1 meter from the ground. 'Ib minimize any threat sur­vival of the newly-discovered colony, a worker was collected at night on 31 July for identification when the colony contained about 20 workers. The voucher specimen has been deposited at the American Museum of Natural History, Polistes dominulus is a Palearctic species, where it is common from theMediterranean region to China (Guiglia 1972). Polistes dominulus was first reported in the United States from Cambridge, in Middlesex Co., Massachu­setts (Hathaway, 1981, under the name Polistesgallicus). By 1981, it had spread to other nearby towns in the Boston area. Since then, this species has been reported from New Jersey (Jacobson 1986), Maryland (Staines and Smith, 1995), Pennsylvania and upstate New York (Jacobson 1991a), north­ern Ohio and probably Vermont (Jacobson 1991b, 1994), and Connecticut (Menke 1993). Aside from the United States, th  species has established itself in Australia (Richards 1978) and Chile (Willink and Chiappa 1993), This species appears to prefer sheltered nesting sites i  the U.S., mostly around human habitations. For example, in New York City it is now the most common paper wasp in such exotic locales as Central Park, and this is also true in the Boston area. TMJ has also seen it in abundance in suburban Buf­falo. In these cities, the adventive P. dominulus may have displaced the na­tive P. fuscatus to some extent, or may simply be an more accomplished synan­thrope, much like Vepsula germanica (Fabricius), which is now a very widespread and common vespine in North America (Akre et aI, 1981). Unfor­tunately, both the pathway of entry into he U.S., and the mode of spread, are unknown. Commercial freighter shipping through the Great Lakes region should be viewed as a possible mode of distribution. Clearly, th  range of P. dominulus is expanding, and continued documentation of its spread and in­teraction with native species is desirable. lDept. of of Biology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI48309. 2American Museum of Natural History, Department of Entomology. Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024. 1Judd and Carpenter: <i>Polistes Dominulus</i> (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) Found in MichigPublished by ValpoScholar, 199646 THE GREAT LAKES ENTOMOLOGIST Vol. 29, No.1 LITERATURE CITED Akre, R. D., A. Greene, J. F. MacDonald, P. J. Landolt, and H. G. Davis. 1981. The Yel­low Jackets of America North of Mexico. United States Department of Agriculture, Agric. Handbook no. 552. Guiglia, D. 1971. Les guElpes sociales (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) d'Europe occidentale et septentrionale. Faun  de l'Europe et du Bassin Mediterraneen 6. Masson et Cie, Paris. Hathaway, M. A. 1981. Polistes gallicus in Massachusetts (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Psyche 88:169-173. Jacobson, R. S. 1986. Polistes dominulus in New Jersey (=Polistes gallicus, of authors). Sphecos 13:22. __. 1991a. Polistes dominulus spreading in USA. Sphecos 21:14. __. 1991b. Polistes dominulus spreads. Sphecos 22:9. __. 1994. Polistes dominulus in Ohio. Sphecos 27:14. Menke, A. S. 1993. Polistes dominulus in Connecticut. Sphecos 24:12. Richards, O. W. 1978. The Australian social wasps (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Aust. J. Zoo!. 61 (Suppl.): 1-132. Staines, C.L. and I.B. Smith. 1995. Polistes dominulus (Christ) (Hymenoptera: Vespi­dae) new to Maryland. Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash. 97:891. Willink, A. and E. Chiappa. 1993. Lista de las especies chilenas de la familia Vespidae (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Acta Ent. Chi!. 18:119-125. 2The Great Lakes Entomologist, Vol. 29, No. 1 [1996], Art. 9https://scholar.valpo.edu/tgle/vol29/iss1/9

\u3ci\u3ePolistes Dominulus\u3c/i\u3e (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) Found in Michigan

https://scholar.valpo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1901&amp;context=tgle

\u3ci\u3ePolistes Dominulus\u3c/i\u3e (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) Found in Michigan

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Valparaiso University