Asian Paper Wasp Males Swarming Flight in Search of New Queens to Mate with 240fps

A swarm of male Asian paper wasps (Polistes chinensis antennalis, family Vespidae) flying busily over a concrete block wall around the backyard. Autumn is their mating season. The males were competing one another over the small opportunity to find a mating partner. They patrolled back and forth along the block wall in search of new queens to mate with. The wingbeats in swarming flight were also recorded at 240-fps high-speed movie or 8x slow-motion (0:36-). Some male landed on the top of the sunlit block to rest and groom himself. And then another hasty male came flying, misidentified him as a female and reflexively pounced on him for mating as quickly as possible (3:18 - 3:25). When he realized his careless mistake, he released the other male and simply flew off. Captured in the sunny early-afternoon (around 12:25 PM) of mid-October 2024 in Japan. For a full story (text in Japanese); https://sigma-nature-vlog.blogspot.com/2026/04/fhd_0607000787.html 0:00 60 fps FHD 0:36 240 fps (8x slo-mo)