Northern or Golden Paper Wasp (P. fuscatus) Drone Postcard

This is a drone or male brown northern paper wasp (aka golden paper wasp). Male paper wasps may have a distinctive curl to the antennae, lighter green eyes than females and a full yellow face. A female of this species has a blotchy brown, red, yellow and black face. The northern paper wasp has dark antennae, not the bright orange of the European paper wasps. His wings are reddish golden brown, and his abdomen is brown and black with yellow stripes. He has orange or reddish legs. In this photo, you can see the feathery red mouth parts of this handsome guy. Adult wasps cannot digest solid food. They can drink nectar, sap, honey and sugar water. This drone is lapping up some sugar water from a plate. Contrary to some beliefs, drone wasps actually do help out around the wasp house. Males are born too late in the season to help with construction of the nest or feeding the larvae. However they ingest sweet fluids to share with their siblings or nest mates, and I have also seen them cleaning out individual cells of the paper honeycomb nests. They may also try to get amorous with a Princess or future Queen but are usually rebuffed. Insemination generally occurs during the famous wasp mating flight, when males swarm in an area and a female chooses one or more among them. Female wasps are dominant in the colony and may chase and bite a male if he gets on their nerves. A drone wasp is always subordinate to the ladies, lowering his body in a submissive posture when on the nest. I have never seen a male wasp try to bite a female. To help protect the nest he might posture aggressively, bluff and bite intruders such as other wasps or predators. The brown golden or northern paper wasp is a New World species that ranges from southern Canada (where I am) to the United States, to Central America. Wasps are amazing insects that benefit a garden as the wasps hunt insect pests such as mosquitos, flies, caterpillars, beetle larvae and other garden pests, and help to pollinate flowers. Wasp wildlife photo by M Sylvia Chaume, Canada.