Entomologists from Switzerland led by Dr Rainer Neumeyer have described a new species of the wasp genus Polistes from Central Europe.
The Swiss paper wasp, Polistes helveticus. Image credit: Neumeyer R et al.
Polistes is a member of the wasp subfamily Polistinae (also known as paper wasps) and is the largest genus within the family Vespidae, with more than 300 species and subspecies. Recent research has discovered some paper wasps have a special talent for recognizing faces of its own kind, just as humans recognize others’ faces.
The newly found species, named the Swiss paper wasp (Polistes helveticus), was confused for years with a closely related species native to southern Europe, Polistes bischoffi.
In 2008, Dr Neumeyer discovered a population of paper wasps in wetlands close to Zurich, Switzerland. He thought that he had found Polistes bischoffi. But at the same location he found another species which, although quite similar to the first, was unusual and could not be identified with certainty.
He then contacted scientists from the University of Zurich, Natural History Museum of Bern and from the University of Neuchatel.
Together, they used genetic and morphometric analyses to confirm the coexistence of two distinct species at the locality close to Zurich: Polistes bischoffi and a previously unknown species.
The Swiss paper wasp occurs in Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Germany and Luxembourg. Its description has been published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.
Females can measure up to 1.4 cm and are larger than males, which measure 0.9 to 1.2 cm long.
Nests are usually attached below 40 cm to vertical stems of reed, alder, willow and other plants.
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Neumeyer R et al. 2014. A new species of the paper wasp genus Polistes (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Polistinae) in Europe revealed by morphometrics and molecular analyses. ZooKeys 400: 67–118; doi: 10.3897/zookeys.400.6611
