Жалпы кәдімгі қоңыз (жалпы былбыршық)

Species of insect

Vespula vulgaris, known as the common wasp, is a species found in regions that include the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, India, China, New Zealand and Australia. It is sometimes known in English as the European wasp, but the same name is used for the species Vespula germanica or German wasp. In 2010, the ostensible Vespula vulgaris wasps in North America were found to be a different species, Vespula alascensis.

Vespula vulgaris is a eusocial vespid that builds its tan paper nest in or on a structure capable of supporting it. A founding queen searches for a hollow tree, wall cavity, rock crevice, or even a hole made by other animals to build a nest. One colony cycle lasts for about 6–11 months and each colony cycle produces around 3,000–8,000 larvae. The extraordinary adaptation skills of V. vulgaris enable it to live in a wide range of habitats, from very humid areas to artificial environments such as gardens and human structures. This species, along with other wasp species such as V. germanica, has impacted the ecosystem, especially those in New Zealand and Australia, where they were imported by humans, and frequently cause damage to fruit crops and endanger humans.

The name Vespula vulgaris comes from the origin of the word vulgaris, which means "common" in Latin, therefore giving the name "common wasp". This species has many synonyms such as "common wasp", "European wasp", Paravespula vulgaris, or "common yellow jacket". However, a study from 2010 revealed that Vespula vulgaris and the American common yellow jacket are actually two different species, the latter now known as Vespula alascensis. In 2009, the species Vespula rufosignata was synonymised with Vespula vulgaris. Common wasps are colloquially called "jaspers" in some English regions (Dorset, Lincolnshire, and elsewhere in the English Midlands); whether this comes from the Latin vespa or from the abdomen resembling the striped mineral jasper, is not clear.

Adult workers of V. vulgaris measure about from head to tip of abdomen, whereas the queen is about long. It has aposematic colors of black and yellow; yellow pronotal bands which are almost parallel to each other and black dots and rings on its abdomen. The queens and workers appear very similar to Vespula germanica, except when they are seen head on, as the V. vulgaris face lacks the three black dots of V. germanica. Instead, each has only one black mark on its clypeus, which is usually anchor or dagger shaped. This applies to queens and workers only. In addition, identification of this species may be difficult because the black mark on its clypeus can sometimes appear broken, making it again look similar to V. germanica. Stage 1 – solitary stage: the queen builds the nest, provisions the cells and rears the first brood of workers. Stage 2 – rapid increase: the workers replace the queen as the foraging force. The queen is now a nurse and egg producer. There is very rapid buildup of worker population. Stage 3 – slow increase: the rate of population growth is not as rapid as in stage 2. Stage 4 – climax of colony: worker population no longer increases. Cells built are all queen cells. Males emerge, as do unmated queens, and foraging rate per worker increases. Drones and queens mate, and the queens hibernate to emerge in the spring, when the cycle repeats with stage 1. Stage 5 – decline: probably caused by death or sickness of queen. Colony cohesion breaks down, cannibalism sets in, and the foraging becomes erratic. After she has fixed the position of the nest, she begins to build it. She repeats the procedure of bringing in a pulp, attaching it to the nest to form a spindle and flying back out to bring in more pulp. During this process, the queen clings to the nest with her two posterior pairs of legs and attaches the pulp using her anterior legs and mouth parts.

A V. vulgaris nest is made from chewed wood fibers mixed with worker saliva. It is generally made of brittle tan coloured paper. It has open cells and a cylindrical column known as a petiole attaching the nest to the substrate. The wasps produce a chemical which repels ants and secrete it around the base of the petiole, to avoid ant predation. V. vulgaris wasps recognize their nests by making pheromone trails from the entrance of their nest to the site of foraging. Those "footprints" are not colony specific, but species specific. Although many other insects such as ants produce such pheromone trails as well, Vespula vulgaris generate pheromone either by special abdominal glands or from the gut. Although the two species Vespula vulgaris and Vespula germanica have extremely similar biological features, characteristics of their nests are distinctive. Vespula germanica nests generally survive the winter, while those of Vespula vulgaris do not. This difference is due mainly to the variation in prey. Vespula vulgaris food sources are greatly affected by temperature, while those of Vespula germanica are not, providing them with a higher chance of survival even during the winter.

When the queen has found the appropriate nesting site, she orients in a similar way as the workers and flies back out of the hole. She flies frontwards and backwards in front of the nest with a slow, hovering flight and repeats this movement until its distance is further away from the hole. When the arc of the flight increases up to about 6 ft (183 cm), the pathway makes a figure of a sideways "8" and when the queen is about 60 ft (18 m) away from the nest site, she then flies in a straight line. This is how the queen Vespula vulgaris marks the land, in respect to the landmarks around the nesting site.

After mating, the queen overwinters in a hole or other sheltered location, sometimes in buildings. Wasp nests are not reused from one year to the next, but in rare instances wasps have been seen to re nest in the footprint of a removed nest or even begin building a new nest within an old nest. In the mild climate of New Zealand and Australia, a few of the colonies may survive the winter, although this is much more common with the German wasp.

The foraging activity of Vespula vulgaris is dependent on the light and temperature of the surrounding area. Generally, if the temperature of the surrounding area falls below 2 °C, the wasps will not proceed with foraging even if the temperature of the nest itself is optimal. When the temperature is above 2 °C, light intensity comes in to play a role. If the light intensity is high enough, the wasps will fly off to forage. However, there is a wide variance within the species, and even within individuals what that threshold light intensity would be – i. e. when would be the best light intensity for a wasp to go out to forage. The foraging activities of Vespula vulgaris are generally highest in early mornings. There are three known reasons for such behavior. First is to satisfy the larval requirements. The workers fly off early in the morning to forage, as soon as their optimal light intensity is reached. They want to feed the larvae which have been starving during the night as soon as possible to reduce their chance of dying. The second reason is to maximize fluid foraging. Because dews and nectars are most abundant early in the morning and are the best sources of fluids, the workers fly off early in the morning before the competition becomes severe. Last is the necessity to release excretory products such as trophallactic secretions from the larvae. Their usual food sources are freshly killed insects such as Hymenoptera, lepidopteran larvae and Diptera and spiders. Common wasps will also attempt to invade honey bees' nests to steal their honey. Although the types of prey Vespula vulgaris and Vespula germanica forage are almost the same, that of Vespula germanica are generally 2–3.5 times bigger and heavier than that of Vespula vulgaris. This is mainly due to the size difference of the two species. Because the Vespula germanica foragers are bigger in morphology than those of Vespula vulgaris, and they both transport the prey by carrying them, it would be advantageous for the wasp to be bigger to be able to hold larger prey. and that the total weight of common wasps may exceed that of all birds. Robber fly and spiders are other predators of this and many other species.