Abstract
South Africa has three indigenous genera of paper wasp, Polistes, Rhopalidia and Belonogaster (family Vespidae). These wasps are mostly brown in colour, usually with pale maculation, and construct nests that are exposed. Thirty four years ago Whitehead & Prins (1975) recorded the European wasp, Vespula germanica (Fabricius, 1793), from Cape Town. This paper wasp builds subterranean nests. Occasionally V. germanica makes nests in closed cavities, such as cavities within the walls of houses, and may also have nests that project outside such cavities. This species has slowly expanded its range to include a substantial area around Cape Town, including the Cape Peninsula, Stellenbosch and the Hottentots-Holland Mountains (Tribe & Richardson 1994, G. Tribe, pers. comm.), and further spread is expected.
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