About the Ropalidia fasciata
Ropalidia fasciata, a common paper wasp, is a wide-ranging species that is distributed from India to the Lesser Sunda Islands, Palawan, and Ryukyu Islands, occupying the northern edge of Ropalidia's larger distribution. These primitively eusocial wasps are unique in that they do not exhibit the strict matrifilial, single-queen social structure found in many species of social insects. Instead, colonies are founded based on associations between several females, or 'foundresses'.
Ropalidia fasciata belongs to one of the largest wasp taxa. Roughly 180 other species belong to the genus Ropalidia. In discussion, R. fasciata is often grouped with and compared to Ropalidia marginata. R. fasciata was classified by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1804.
R. fasciata appears with a red-brown body with yellow stripes, and some black and yellow markings. The species are variable in color pattern, displaying the black markings to various degrees. Queen-like and worker-like individuals are not morphologically distinguishable, but instead are differentiated based on behavior.
R. fasciata is distributed consistently... Wikipedia →