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- ›Hornets and Yellowjackets

Ground Yellowjackets
Vespula
Vespula is a small genus of social wasps, widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere. Along with members of their sister genus Dolichovespula, they are collectively known by the common name yellowjackets (or yellow jackets) in North America. Vespula species have a shorter oculomalar space (shown in the figure below right) and a more pronounced tendency to nest underground than Dolichovespula.
26 branches of this genus, most-observed first

German Yellowjacket
speciesVespula germanica

Eastern Yellowjacket
speciesVespula maculifrons

Common European Yellowjacket
speciesVespula vulgaris

Western Yellowjacket
speciesVespula pensylvanica

Southern Yellowjacket
speciesVespula squamosa
American Yellowjacket
speciesVespula alascensis

Widow Yellowjacket
speciesVespula vidua

Downy Yellowjacket
speciesVespula flavopilosa

Blackjacket
speciesVespula consobrina

Red-banded Yellowjacket
speciesVespula rufa

Common Asian Yellowjacket
speciesVespula flaviceps

Prairie Yellowjacket
speciesVespula atropilosa

Forest Yellowjacket
speciesVespula acadica

California Yellowjacket
speciesVespula sulphurea

Korean Yellowjacket
speciesVespula koreensis

Taiwan Yellowjacket
speciesVespula arisana

Boreal Yellowjacket
speciesVespula austriaca

Shida's Yellowjacket
speciesVespula shidai

Cuckoo Yellowjacket
speciesVespula infernalis

Northern Red-banded Yellowjacket
speciesVespula intermedia

Vespula structor
speciesVespula structor

Vespula orbata
speciesVespula orbata

Volcano Yellowjacket
speciesVespula inexspectata

Vespula nursei
speciesVespula nursei

Vespula kingdonwardi
speciesVespula kingdonwardi

Guatemalan Yellowjacket
speciesVespula akrei
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Vespula in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 61356.