author(s)
Amritpal Singh Brar, Harish Kumar Sharma and Kiran Rana

abstract
Two species of wasps, Vespa auraria and V. magnifica are found visiting the apiary of Apis mellifera L. colonies at Nauni, Solan district, Himachal Pradesh, during July, 2015 to June, 2016. The incidence of V. auraria was found maximum in September (366.23±30.38/day) followed by wasp’s visits in August (297.77±28.89/day), October (280.69±32.62/day), November (238.26±23.69/day) and July (129.23±6.89/day). No visits of wasps were observed during December, 2015 to March, 2016 in University apiary at Nauni. The wasps reappeared again in April (1.8±0.32), May (4.45±0.58) and June (12.54±0.88). V. magnifica was also noticed visiting apiary only on few occasions during October to November months at Nauni. Its visits ranged between 1 to 3 wasp per day. Incidence of V. auraria showed significant positive correlation with temperature (r= 0.759) and relative humidity (r= 0.665).