Nests of a paper waspPolistes stigmain south India were initiated mostly on plants, either on the underside of leaves (47%) or on the stems of woody grasses, leafstalks and twigs (53%) in woody areas, at a mean height of 2.5 m. Sixty-one (93.8%) of 65 colonies were founded by single females. This is in strong contrast to the large proportion (>80%) of multiple-female founding reported so far in neotropicalPolistes. Twenty-three (88.5%) of 26 colonies did not survive the pre-emergence stage. Eight (88.9%) of nine post-emergence colonies (five natural and four transplanted colonies) were attacked by hornets (Vespaspp.) and abandoned.