Australian paper wasp.
New Zealand has many species of solitary native wasps that evolved here and never cause problems for people. In contrast, four social wasp species have been accidentally introduced and become established pests. These introduced species are the Asian paper wasp, the Australian paper wasp, the German wasp and the common wasp.
German and common wasps are closely related and belong to a group known as ‘vespulid’ wasps. With their characteristic black and yellow body colouration they look very similar.
The Asian paper wasp is also black and yellow, while the Australian paper wasp is reddish brown. Both paper wasp species are l. Original public domain image from Flickr