Eastern Yellowjacket vs Panzer's Nomad Bee

Side-by-side species comparison

Attribute Eastern Yellowjacket Panzer's Nomad Bee
Scientific Name Vespula maculifrons Nomada panzeri
Order Hymenoptera Hymenoptera
Family Vespidae Andrenidae
Size 12-16 mm 8-10 mm
Habitat Woodlands Woodlands
Diet Carrion Feeders Predators
Regions Eastern North America from Canada to the Gulf states Europe
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.

Panzer's Nomad Bee

A wasp-mimicking cleptoparasitic bee that targets Andrena mining bee nests. Its bright red, yellow, and black coloring warns predators of its sting.

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Did You Know?

It has lost all pollen-collecting structures because its larvae are fed entirely by stolen provisions from mining bee nests.