Skip to main content

Lerak paper wasp (Polistes tenebricosus)

Lerak paper wasp (Polistes tenebricosus) is a species of animal in Vespidae, a predator, living in a colony and making nests, usually close to human habitats which may on some occasions be disturbing even though they are not aggressive insects, but will respond if the nest is disturbed.

P. tenebricosus has a dominant black or dark brown color or light brown ring on the abdomen, a rough, shiny and hairless surface. Big black eyes and triangular scissor jaws. A pair of antennas, wide-ranging, dark brown with black tips.

Dlium Lerak paper wasp (Polistes tenebricosus)


A pair of translucent brown wings with a black bone and several dark brown veins. Stomach shaped water droplets, have five rings with spaces of different colors or the same and a pointed tip. Joints legs have small spines.

Lerak paper wasp has four life stages. The creation phase begins when a solitary female or initial group builds a nest by forming petioles on the roof of a house, stone or tree. The nest consists of hexagonal cells with each cell surrounded by six other cells to lay eggs.

Mother females feed the hatched larvae. The larvae grow into adolescents and take on the role of workers in charge of protecting their mother who acts as a queen until their new siblings are born.

The workers phase begins about two months after the colony is formed. These workers are females in charge of looking for food, caring for new larvae and guarding nests.



The reproduction phase begins when reproductive females emerge from brood cells that are different from working females due to the amount of fat deposits and cryoprotectant carbohydrate compounds. Sometimes reproductive males emerge and the two reproduce out of the nest to mate and form separate colonies.

The intermediate phase begins when the behavior of guarding larvae and gathering food decreases, the number of female workers decreases, individual, aggression in the colony increases and social life in the nest is chaotic.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Class: Insecta
Subclass: Pterygota
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Infraorder: Aculeata
Superfamily: Vespoidea
Family: Vespidae
Subfamily: Polistinae
Tribe: Polistini
Genus: Polistes
Subgenus: Gyrostoma
Species: Polistes tenebricosus

Popular Posts

Dry Valleys on Antarctic continent is the driest place in the world

The Sahara Desert is the largest desert in the world, rainfall is very low, only stretches of sand and rocks without rivers and plants further strengthen the view of drought. However, it turns out that the place is not the driest place in the world. Dry Valleys in Antarctica, although the continent is covered in ice, but has one part that is completely dry. Although the average rainfall in most of the Sahara Desert is less than 20 millimeters per year, there are still drier places. Dry Valleys in Antarctica is much drier where the average rainfall is 0 millimeters per year and gets the title of the driest place in the world. The valleys have so low humidity that there is almost no ice. This is the largest ice free place on the Antarctic continent. The area is surrounded by mountains that block ice from flowing into the valley. Drought is also caused by strong katabalic gusts from mountain peaks where cold air blows down the hill due to gravity. The wind has speeds of up to 322 k...

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) manufacture bubble-nets as tools to increase prey intake

NEWS - Humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) create bubble net tools while foraging, consisting of internal tangential rings, and actively control the number of rings, their size, depth and horizontal spacing between the surrounding bubbles. These structural elements of the net increase prey intake sevenfold. Researchers have known that humpback whales create “bubble nets” for hunting, but the new report shows that the animals also manipulate them in a variety of ways to maximize catches. The behavior places humpbacks among the rare animals that make and use their own tools. “Many animals use tools to help them find food, but very few actually make or modify these tools themselves,” said Lars Bejder, director of the Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP), University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Humpback whales in southeast Alaska create elaborate bubble nets to catch krill. They skillfully blow bubbles in patterns that form a web with internal rings. They actively control details such ...

Tripa tiger moth (Nannoarctia tripartita)

Tripa tiger moth ( Nannoarctia tripartita ) is an animal species in the Erebidae, a moth with a forewing length of 14-18 mm, predominantly black or dark brown with white and orange hues, thick fur on the dorsal surface, long legs and antennae, living in forest scrub and agricultural land. N. tripartita in females has forewings 15-18 mm long, black or dark brown with slightly oblique transverse and few spots. The hind wings are yellow with large dark discal points and three other dots. Males have forewings 14-17 mm long, black or dark brown with transverse oblique postdiscal bands and several spots. The hind wings are yellow with brown costal margins, discal confluent points, wide ridges on the crest and angular points in the tornus. The head has a thin orange pattern and a pair of long black antennae. Long legs are black. Tripa tiger moths live in forest scrub, farmland and roadsides. More stationary by sticking to the leaf surface at the top. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropod...