Bald-Faced Hornet

Whitefaced Hornet
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Subphylum: Hexapoda Class: Insecta Subclass: Pterygota Infraclass: Neoptera Superorder: Endopterygota Order: Hymenoptera Suborder: Apocrita Superfamily: Vespoidea Family: Vespidae Subfamily: Vespinae Genus: Vespula Species: maculata
Binomial name
'Vespula maculata Buckley 1860

The Bald-Faced Hornet\' or White-Faced Hornet' is not a true hornet at all. It is actually more closely related to another type of American wasp called the Yellowjacket, than it is to true Hornets like the European or Japanese Hornet.

The Bald-Faced Hornet lives throughout North America, from Canada down through the southwestern United States, and are common in the southeastern United States. They are best known for their large gray football-shaped paper nest, which they build in the spring for raising their young. Bald-Faced Hornets are extremely protective of their nests and will sting repeatedly if disturbed.

Every year young queens, that were born and fertilized the previous year, start a new colony and raise their young. The Workers build the nest by chewing up wood that mixes with a starch in their saliva, which they spread with their mandibles and legs to dry into paper. The workers also guard the nest, and bring nectar back to feed the larva. This continues through summer and into fall. But by winter all the wasps die, except for some young fertilized queens, which hibernate underground or in hollow trees. The nest is abandoned by winter, and will most likely not be reused. When spring arives the young queens emerge, and the cycle begins again.

Like other social wasps, Bald-Faced Hornets have a caste system made up of the following:

1. Queens - Fertile females which begin the colonies and lay eggs
2. Workers - Infertile females which have stingers and do the manual labor
3. Drones - Fertile males which have no stingers, fertilize the eggs, yet are born from unfertilized eggs.

Bald-Faced Hornets also go through a Polymorphic change that consists of 4 parts:

1. Egg
2. Larva
3. Pupa
4. Imago or Adult