page_title: Stenogastrinae
section_title: Nest
hierarchical_section_title: Stenogastrinae / Colonial cycle and social organization / Nest
caption_attribution_description: English: Nest of Eustenogaster fraterna.
context_page_description: The Stenogastrinae are a subfamily of social wasps included in the family Vespidae. They are sometimes called hover wasps owing to the particular hovering flight of some species. Their morphology and biology present interesting peculiarities.
context_section_description: The nest is one of the characters which are common to all social insects and represents an important factor for the origin and evolution of their social life. 
  Stenogastrine nest architecture differs from that of other social wasps and has such an incredible variety of shapes, it has in some instances been used as a systematic character. 
  None of the nests of any stenogastrine species has a petiole (or peduncle), which is one of the more striking differences with respect to the nests of other eusocial wasps. Rather, cells are built directly on various kinds of flat or threadlike substrates. Another important difference is that these wasps use a construction material which is of a poor quality compared to that used by other social wasps. According to Hansell (1996), this is because their mandibles are not suitable for the collection of long vegetable fibres as are those of other vespids. Moreover, the collected material is kept together by a cement (salivary) secretion which is too scarce (and probably not so good) to assure the production of a good paper paste. Hansell maintains this limits the possibility of building large nests and, consequently, the formation of large colonies prevents the development of a more evolved sociality in these wasps.
caption: Nest of Eustenogaster fraterna
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D200", "Image XResolution": "600", "Image YResolution": "600", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Centimeter", "Image Software": "Ver.2.01", "Image DateTime": "2010:04:05 11:48:40", "Image ExifOffset": "186", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "22", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "160", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:01:27 13:05:46", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:01:27 13:05:46", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "5906891/1000000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "8918863/1000000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "1", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "17/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Strobe return light not detected", "EXIF FocalLength": "60", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "49", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "49", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 2, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "90", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Soft", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}