Asian giant hornet

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Asian giant hornet

Vespa mandarinia form "magnifica".

Private collection, F. Turetta.

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Hymenoptera

Family: Vespidae

Genus: Vespa

Species: V. mandarinia

Binomial name
 Vespa mandarinia

Smith, 1852[1]

Synonyms

 Vespa magnifica Smith,
1852

 Vespa
japonica Radoszkowski, 1857
 Vespa bellona Smith,
1871

 Vespa
magnifica var. latilineata C
ameron, 1903

 Vespa mandarina Dalla
Torre, 1894 (misspelling)

 Vespa mandarinia
nobilis Sonan, 1929
 Vespa magnifica
sonani Matsumura, 1930

The Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia), including the color form referred to as the
"Japanese giant hornet",[2][3] is the world's largest hornet. It is native to temperate and
tropical East Asia, South Asia, Mainland Southeast Asia, and parts of the Russian Far East. It
was also found in the Pacific Northwest of North America in late 2019,[4] with three additional
sightings in 2020.[5][6] They prefer to live in low mountains and forests, while almost completely
avoiding plains and high-altitude climates. V. mandarinia creates nests by digging, co-opting pre-
existing tunnels dug by rodents, or occupying spaces near rotted pine roots.[7] It feeds primarily
on larger insects, colonies of other eusocial insects, tree sap, and honey from honey bee
colonies.[8] The hornet has a body length of 45 mm (1.8 in), a wingspan around 75 mm (3.0 in),
and a stinger 6 mm (1⁄4 in) long, which injects a large amount of potent venom.[9]
The Asian giant hornet is often confused with the yellow-legged hornet (Vespa velutina), also
known as the Asian hornet, an invasive species of major concern across Europe, including the
UK.

Contents

 1Taxonomy and phylogeny

 2Description
o 2.1Queens and workers
o 2.2Drones
 3Geographic distribution
 4Nesting
 5Colony cycle
o 5.1Prenesting period
o 5.2Solitary, cooperative and polyethic periods
o 5.3Dissolution and hibernating period
 6Sting
o 6.1Effects on humans
 7Parasites
 8Communication and perception
 9Scent marking
 10Interspecies dominance
 11Predation
o 11.1Native honey bees
 12Extermination methods
o 12.1Beating
o 12.2Nest removal
o 12.3Bait traps
o 12.4Mass poisoning
o 12.5Trapping at hive entrances
o 12.6Protective screens
 13Human consumption
 14References
 15External links

Taxonomy and phylogeny

Wasps are paraphyletic, consisting of the clade Apocrita without ants and bees,

which are not usually considered to be wasps. The Hymenoptera also contain the
somewhat wasplike Symphyta, the sawflies. The familiar common
wasps and yellowjackets belong to one family, the Vespidae.

Paraphyletic grouping
The wasps are a cosmopolitan paraphyletic grouping of hundreds of
thousands of species,[1][2] consisting of the narrow-
waisted Apocrita without the ants and bees.[3] The Hymenoptera also
contain the somewhat wasplike but unwaisted Symphyta, the sawflies.
The term wasp is sometimes used more narrowly for members of
the Vespidae, which includes several eusocial wasp lineages, such
as yellowjackets (the
genera Vespula and Dolichovespula), hornets (genus Vespa), and
members of the subfamily Polistinae.
Fossils

Male Electrostephanus petiolatus fossil from the Middle Eocene, preserved in Baltic

amber

Hymenoptera in the form of Symphyta (Xyelidae) first appeared in the

fossil record in the Lower Triassic. Apocrita, wasps in the broad sense,
appeared in the Jurassic, and had diversified into many of the extant
superfamilies by the Cretaceous; they appear to have evolved from the
Symphyta.[4] Fig wasps with modern anatomical features first appeared in
the Lower Cretaceous of the Crato Formation in Brazil, some 65 million
years before the first fig trees.[5]
The Vespidae include the extinct genus Palaeovespa, seven species of
which are known from the Eocene rocks of the Florissant fossil
beds of Colorado and from fossilised Baltic amber in Europe.[6] Also
found in Baltic amber are crown wasps of the genus Electrostephanus.[7]
[8]

Diversity
Wasps are a diverse group, estimated at over a hundred
thousand described species around the world, and a great many more
as yet undescribed.[9][a] For example, there are over 800 species of fig
trees, mostly in the tropics, and almost all of these has its own
specific fig wasp (Chalcidoidea) to effect pollination.[10]
Many wasp species are parasitoids; the females deposit eggs on or in a
host arthropod on which the larvae then feed. Some larvae start off as
parasitoids, but convert at a later stage to consuming the plant tissues
that their host is feeding on. In other species, the eggs are laid directly
into plant tissues and form galls, which protect the developing larvae
from predators but not necessarily from other parasitic wasps. In some
species, the larvae are predatory themselves; the wasp eggs are
deposited in clusters of eggs laid by other insects, and these are then
consumed by the developing wasp larvae.[10]
The largest social wasp is the Asian giant hornet, at up to 5 centimetres
(2.0 in) in length.[11] The various tarantula hawk wasps are of a similar
size[12] and can overpower a spider many times its own weight, and move
it to its burrow, with a sting that is excruciatingly painful to humans.
[13]
 The solitary giant scoliid, Megascolia procer, with a wingspan of
11.5 cm,[14] has subspecies in Sumatra and Java;[15] it is a parasitoid of
the Atlas beetle Chalcosoma atlas.[16] The female giant ichneumon
wasp Megarhyssa macrurus is 12.5 centimetres (5 in) long including its
very long but slender ovipositor which is used for boring into wood and
inserting eggs.[17] The smallest wasps are solitary chalcid wasps in the
family Mymaridae, including the world's smallest known
insect, Dicopomorpha echmepterygis (139 micrometres long) and Kikiki
huna with a body length of only 158 micrometres, the smallest known
flying insect.[18]

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