Eastern Yellowjacket vs Chequered Skipper

Side-by-side species comparison

Attribute Eastern Yellowjacket Chequered Skipper
Scientific Name Vespula maculifrons Carterocephalus palaemon
Order Hymenoptera Lepidoptera
Family Vespidae Hesperiidae
Size 12-16 mm 26-32 mm wingspan
Habitat Woodlands Woodlands
Diet Carrion Feeders Omnivores
Regions Eastern North America from Canada to the Gulf states Europe, temperate Asia, North America
Conservation Least Concern Least Concern

Eastern Yellowjacket

A common ground-nesting yellowjacket with bold black and yellow banding on its abdomen. It builds large paper nests underground that can contain thousands of workers.

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Did You Know?

Its underground nests can grow to the size of a basketball and contain over 4,000 workers by late summer.

Chequered Skipper

A small dark butterfly with bold orange-yellow chequered spots, once found in English woodlands but now confined to western Scotland in Britain. It was successfully reintroduced to England in 2018.

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Did You Know?

It became extinct in England in 1976 but was reintroduced using stock from Belgium four decades later.