Wasps on Wild Cotton

All Photos by Ned Harris 10/3/2015

Polistes flavus

Polistes comanchus

Polistes major castaneicolor

All are paper wasps, all are on Wild Cotton (Gossypium thurberi); specifically, on the developing fruits. According to our favorite bug lady, Margarethe Brummermann, the wasps are chewing through the stem at the base and/or the skin of the developing fruit and licking the sap. Yum.