Paravespula

Paravespula is a small subgenus of yellowjacket wasps, including some of the best-known wasp species in the world: the German wasp, Vespula germanica; the eastern yellowjacket Vespula maculifrons; the western yellowjacket Vespula pensylvanica; and the common wasp, Vespula vulgaris. It is occasionally treated as a separate genus, but this is not widely accepted.[1][2]

Paravespula
German wasp
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Suborder:	Apocrita
Family:	Vespidae
Genus:	Vespula
Subgenus:	Paravespula Blüthgen, 1938

These particular wasps have a tendency to make underground nests with the opening usually showing from a crack in a wall or an opening in a small grass hill, which makes it quite difficult to locate to get the colony removed.[3] The wasps are aggressive and usually attack if their nests are threatened. Species in the subgenus Paravespula differ from those in the subgenus Vespula (s.str) in having larger colonies with up to thousands of individuals and several medium to large brood combs.[4]

References

1. "Vespula (Paravespula) germanica (Fabricius, 1793) - German Wasp - Natural History Museum". www.nhm.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
2. "ITIS Standard Report Page: Paravespula germanica". www.itis.gov. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
3. Rowland, C. M.; McLellan, A. R. (1979-07-01). "A model of a wasp colony population, Paravespula vulgaris (L.)". Ecological Modelling. 7 (2): 151–162. doi:10.1016/0304-3800(79)90005-X. ISSN 0304-3800.
4. "Vespula (Paravespula) germanica | NBN Atlas". species.nbnatlas.org. Retrieved 2019-07-02.