Tiny wasp? nest for id

[ashgale]

while walking under a large cabbage palm in the garden today, this little object fell out of the tree right in front of me,
on picking it up, it turned out to be a miniature wasps ? nest, in size it was smaller than a golf ball, and had several part formed cells in the upper section, which can just be seen in the picture,
is this just a normal wasp nest (do they enlarge the nest as the colony grows ?)
or something else again ?
its a very delicate and beautiful piece of work, and despite its delicate look was quite strong,
im assuming that this is a nest from last year, but could well be wrong,



any suggestions much appreciated,

ashgale.

[JRsbugs]

Looks like Dolichovespula sylvestris nest. I have that one around but haven't seen a nest, there's plenty of trees around but I would love it to nest in my garden.

Dolichovespula sylvestris

It doesn't look complete, but maybe it is and is an old one. There looks to be several open cells from which the wasps would have hatched.

Janet

[ashgale]

Hi, thanks for the fascinating info on the wasp,
last year i saw a wasp(s) chewing on the wood frame of the anti heron netting over the pond, but never managed to track where it took the wood to, it seems very likely that this nest could have been the destination , i have had a god look at all the other trees and structures in the garden, but have not seen any signs of other nests,

ashgale.


edit, the reason i thought it was a nest from last year, was the fact that the outside of the nest had signs of green algae on it, suggesting age